Chasing the Sun
by Saya Moonshadow
Summary: Takanuva's journey to rescue a friend becomes much more than a mere rescue when he finds that his quest leads him to a chain of islands known as the Nuian Archipelago, where monsters are said to rule and night is near eternal.
1. Prologue: Letter of Explanation

**Yes, another adventure story that just begged to be written. Sorry. I don't plan on abandoning **_**Whispers in the Dark**_** or **_**A Path Well Traveled**_**, though, so no worries. The first two chapters are already written and posted on BZPower, but I'll get to posting them here later.**

**Inspired in part by two things: **_**The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess**_** and Nox Arcana's albums "Shadow of the Raven", "Darklore Manor", and "Grimm Tales". Woohoo!**

**Disclaimer: As usual, I am afraid I must admit that I don't own **_**Bionicle**_**. Anyone you don't recognize as canon in this story, however, most likely belongs to me. Everyone else belongs to LEGO Enterprises.**

**Summary: Takanuva's journey to rescue a friend becomes so much more than a mere rescue when he finds that his quest leads him to a chain of islands known as the Nuian Archipelago, where monsters are said to rule and night is near eternal. Eventual TakaNixie.  
**

**Chasing the Sun  
By: Saya Moonshadow**

"_Begin with the end in mind, or risk forgetting what you were fighting for in the first place."_

X x X

Toa Jaller Mahri  
Metru Nui, Ta-Metru  
The Great Furnace, Level 3, Room 36

_Jaller--_

_It's me, Takanuva. You know, the guy who's white and gold and can't keep a secret to save his life. Yeah, I'm still alive, but I don't know for how long. I also don't know when I'm going to be able to make it back home. Maybe I won't ever._

_Wow, that's dark for the Toa of Light, huh?_

_Anyway, I'm sending you my journals of this whole adventure I went on, so just in case I don't make it home, you can still write them down into history. Yeah it's pretty selfish of me, but I don't want to be forgotten. And there were some pretty amazing things that happened to me as well._

_By the way, tell Turaga Vakama that I'm the one who stole his book of legends, not Lewa. Sorry, but I just had a feeling that I'd need it. I'll try to return it, but if I can't, then expect it in the post one of these days._

_Seriously, Jaller, you won't believe some of the things that have happened to me so far. The people I've met, the things I've seen, the monsters I've faced...and all just because of one Matoran. Yeah I know it's silly, but just think if it had been Hahli in this situation - you would've gone after her, and you know it. So I'm justified. I think._

_My first journal is in this package as well, so don't forget to read and share it with the Turaga (and the Matoran too, while you're at it). I'd do it myself, but you know how these perilous quest type things are. Dunno if I'll have the chance to, and SOMEONE has to pass the story of my epic adventure on now that I've sort of been kicked out of the Chronicler's job (have they picked a new one now that Hahli's out too, by the way?)._

_And sorry for leaving on such short notice as well, I know you must be worried sick. Don't worry though, I know almost exactly what I'm doing. Almost. But I can do this. I think. I hope. Please._

_Listen, I gotta go, the mail boat guy's getting impatient. So I'll see you around soon hopefully, and until then, expect more letters and journals. (For now, I'm on Kaia Nui, so just direct any nagging letters you might send there for the time being.)_

_--Takanuva_

_P.S.: Tell Kopaka that I'm not the one who wrecked his piano, that one really was Lewa's fault this time. And give Lewa my prayers, because once Kopaka finds out, there's gonna be blood shed. Seriously._

X x X

Takanuva, Toa of Light  
Kaia Nui  
I dunno exactly WHERE he is, but find him, messenger person! He's easy to spot, just look for a really tall guy with gold armor and a shiny mask. And a giant kolhii stick.

_Takanuva--_

_Takua, you MORON, what the heck were you thinking?! You could've at least done me the courtesy of letting me know you were leaving BEFORE you left, you know, as that's what friends are supposed to do. And leaving alone on a quest you know nothing about?! You have got to be the stupidest, most moronic Toa ever to have been built! Seriously, you could end up dead! Or worse! Do you have a death wish or something?!_

_OK, now that I've gotten THAT out of my system...how are you? More importantly, WHERE are you? I just checked a map - Kaia Nui's all the way in the Southern Hemisphere! You sure have traveled a long way, man, Metru Nui's in the North._

_Don't worry about your journals, I'll make sure everyone knows what's in them. And I'll get Onua to put them into the Archives for you, one of the front shelves. Pretty crazy adventure you're on right now, although I sort of envy you. It sounds incredible._

_Turaga Vakama frowned when I told him about the book you took, but he just told me to tell you to make sure it's not TOO damaged when you get it back to him. And have a little faith in yourself; anyone who could defeat Teridax alone can deal with this stuff easily. I think so, anyway._

_You're right about Hahli - you know I would do anything to protect her, and anyone else on Metru Nui, for that matter. I just hope you manage to get to Nixie in time. We heard about her kidnapping, so hopefully you can be the Toa-hero in shining (literally) armor and bring her back home safely, which I know you will. Remember, believing in yourself is the first step to accomplishing something. YOU were the one who told me that, as I recall._

_Hopefully this letter gets to you; you might already be on another island by the time it gets to Kaia Nui. In any case, keep writing to me and let me know you're still alive out there._

_Best wishes,_

_--Jaller_

_P.S.: Lewa says to tell you that he's going to clock you when you get back for snitching on him to Kopaka. I doubt he'll be able to do any harm for a while now, though - Kopaka sort of broke his arm to get revenge for his piano. Better hurry and get back before he heals._

X x X

**AN: Umph. It's good to get into writing again; the third chapter of this thing is nearly done. Anyway, that was just the prologue. Hopefully this will be as successful as **_**The Road Not Taken**_** was last year and, moreover, I hope that you all enjoy it. That's what I'm really aiming for here.**

**Don't ask why I'm writing a long story starring my least favorite character. I just am, and the reasons are beyond me. But, I will say that Takanuva's a lot of fun to write. I always imagine him as slightly dramatic for some reason as well...**

**Anyway, hit that little thing down there that says "Review", and let me know what you think.**


	2. Setting Off

**I don't like this chapter D: But I'm too lazy and tired to rewrite it, so nya. Anyway, please don't skip it, no matter how boring it is, since it DOES have some important stuff in it.**

**...please?**

**Disclaimer: As usual, I am afraid I must admit that I don't own **_**Bionicle**_**. Anyone you don't recognize as canon in this story, however, most likely belongs to me. Everyone else belongs to LEGO Enterprises.**

**Summary: Takanuva's journey to rescue a friend becomes so much more than a mere rescue when he finds that his quest leads him to a chain of islands known as the Nuian Archipelago, where monsters are said to rule and night is near eternal.**

**Chasing the Sun  
By: Saya Moonshadow**

"_All I want is to know why life is not a lullaby."_

X x X

_Day 1_

Well hey there, this is my mission journal. Whenever I'm sent on one of these things, I always bring a few journals to write things down in. Force of habit, I guess. I'm still not quite used to not being the Chronicler anymore.

So hi, journal-thing. My name's Takanuva, Toa of Light, formerly an Av-Matoran who thought he was a Ta-Matoran who just so happened to be cursed with a blue mask.

(Why is it always the custom to introduce yourself to your own journal...? Not like it's alive or something...but anyway, it makes me feel important, so hey there, journal-thing! ...I already said that...)

As I write this, I am on a boat following the trail of a renegade who stole away a Matoran of Metru Nui. I don't know why they took Nixie, or what they hoped to accomplish by it, but all they've done is tick me off. Nixie is a friend, and like anyone I consider a friend, I'm going to try to save her.

Although I guess I should start at the beginning...uh...

Alright. Lately, things have been...a little strange on Metru Nui. See, all of a sudden, Kopaka started losing his Ice powers. They just...weakened suddenly, drastically, with no cause. It might have been because the Nuva's symbols were disturbed again, but all of the Turaga doubted it. Soon after that, Onua's power started to go, followed by Lewa's. Then Pohatu, then Tahu. The only one who still had power besides me was Gali, and no one was sure how long that was going to last either.

The maddening thing was that we didn't know WHY it was happening! Things were going great, and then THIS happens. It's the kind of thing that makes you want to tear your mask off and stomp on it...except I kind of need this mask. The other Toa still have power, but very little. As in, the most Kopaka can do right now is shoot out a rather weak stream of ice that melts almost as soon as it hits the air.

I don't know if the Mahri are having these problems, as they're off on their own mission elsewhere and are due back in a few days, but I hope not. It's dangerous for a Toa not to have power, as we're supposed to be the protectors around here. Without our power...well, there's a problem.

Anyway, I was with Nixie when she was taken. It was pretty sudden, actually, we were standing on one of the docks of Ga-Metru when...wow, not even I'm quite sure of what happened, it was so fast. One second, she was telling me something about this sign she saw in the stars, the next, she was screaming my name as this...giant bird-thing carried her off to the south.

Snatched away. I didn't even see the thing coming, and neither did she. And smack me if I'm wrong, but I could swear I saw a rider on that bird thing's back. Even worse, it looked like a Toa.

It's kind of surprising how fast I moved, actually. Jumped into the nearest boat and gave chase. I'm lucky I had my bag and supplies with me at the time - without them, I'd be in trouble. Included in my bag is a book that I admittedly sort of stole from Turaga Vakama. I don't know why, but when Nixie asked me to meet with her that day, I had a feeling we'd need it. I don't know how much help a book about legends is going to give me (unless I'm weaponless, then it'll come in handy for bashing someone's head in), but that doesn't matter right now. It'll be a way to pass the time, at any rate.

...I feel that my life is very, very sad.

X x X

_Day 2_

OK. I think I'm gonna barf here, because I REALLY hate sailing and only do it when I ABSOLUTELY have to, and yeah, unfortunately I have to.

This sucks.

WHY didn't I think of taking someone along with me so that they could steer the boat while I get sick?!

Oh haha, some Toa I am. I, Takanuva, spend my days at sea impossibly sick and wishing Mata Nui would just kill me now.

Stupid bird thing, capturing Nixie and making me go on an epic adventure (OK, maybe not epic...) to get her back.

Just watch, journal-thing, there's going to be some whole dastardly plan that that bird-thing needed her for. Like...the end of the world or something. It's always the case: a seemingly random incident is SOMEHOW linked to the grand master plan of some moron who wants to take over the world! Look at the Morbuzakh, that thing was one of Teridax's psycho experiments and we all just thought it was some evil thing that had randomly gotten situated in the Great Furnace with the apparent intent of world domination.

...my head hurts.

X x X

_Day 6_

OK...feel free to kill me, journal-thing, but I more or less wasn't feeling up to writing for the past four or so days. At least, I think it was four days...

Er. How long HAS it been? I lost track.

But um, anyway, land ho! I think it's land, anyway. All I can really see is, well, shapes that look vaguely like islands. I hope they are, I'm running dangerously low on supplies. Can maybe go a day or so more before I run out of water and food, which is not good. I'm lucky I even had this much in my bag, since I'm used to being on the road and always keep some in there in case of emergency, but I seem to have hit a stretch of water where there are no islands to stop and restock at.

Strange, because in the North, there are islands scattered all over. I think I might have seen Mata Nui a while ago...provided I'm in the South now, which I wouldn't doubt.

X x X

_Day 8_

Am I still alive...?

If I was feeling sick before, that's nothing compared to how I feel right now.

Seriously, OUCH.

And I met a sea creature.

Perhaps "creature" isn't exactly the right word..."monster" works way better in this situation. It was...huge. Like...bigger than me AND my boat put together. I think it might have been one of those things that Turaga Nokama had to explore around when she was looking for her Great Disk, but I can't be sure. All I really saw were waves. And eyes. And teeth. Lots and lots of teeth. Rather...big, sharp, pointy teeth.

The _TEETH_...

It wasn't exactly a heroic slaying of the beast, either. I was too sick to do much except stare at it in horror as it came at me, and wonder whether or not if by some miracle my remains would ever be found.

Apparently it doesn't like light though, which was a lucky break for me. See, when I'm agitated, my mask tends to...act up. A lot. It shines bright enough to temporarily blind anyone looking at me when it happens, and it's admittedly a nuisance, but a definite blessing in this situation.

Anyway, so it was coming at me, and its mouth was wide open, and all I could think about was oh Mata Nui I'm gonna DIE - and my mask started shining like it always does, and the thing gave this...scream. This gut-wrenching, ear-killing scream, and started thrashing around, making waves bigger than any I've ever seen before.

And there I was, clinging to my boat and my bag for dear life while the thing keeps flailing about and screaming like it had just been stabbed or something.

And then, even more horrifying then anything else, it gave this little yelp and bobbed under the water for a minute. It resurfaced, flailing harder now, and then went under a second time, but harder, making a mini-ish whirlpool for a minute as it was dragged down.

Yeah, dragged down. Which means, there was something even bigger than that monster under there, and I am just lucky in the fact that it chose to go after my attacker rather than me and my boat.

I definitely don't think I like the South very much. It's humid and there are no islands and there are gigantic sea monsters that eat each other and I'm out of supplies and the paper in Turaga Vakama's book is starting to look REALLY good and I am starting to really hate my life right now.

I really just want to get to wherever I'm going, rescue Nixie, and go home. But first, I need food and water. My throat feels like it's been coated in sand or something...cotton mouth, ugh. And, as anyone with half a brain knows, ocean water is not fit to drink and would only make me even sicker than I already feel.

Now I REALLY wish I had thought before just jumping into this boat and taking off after that bird-thing.

But hey, maybe it's a GOOD thing there are barely any islands in the South - at least now I won't have a huge selection to choose from to start searching.

I was never really around the village much even as a Matoran, what with being the Chronicler and all, but I WAS there often enough to remember some of Turaga Vakama's stories. He used to tell tales about strange lands where there are outsize Rahi that are big enough to swallow you whole, never mind having to chew you first. I always thought those were just stories told to pass the monotony of lava farming, and so did everyone else.

Right now, I'm starting to think there might be some truth to those tales, as that thing that attacked me (and the thing that attacked IT in turn) were both majorly outsize, just like in the stories. And now I just feel really scared because I couldn't defend myself even if I were to try right now...

I seriously need to find land soon. Otherwise I'm gonna die out here. And where will that leave me? A heap of armor, a book, and a stick in a little boat on the Great Sea, drifting to nowhere.

X x X

_Day...11? I think so, anyway..._

Sweet Mata Nui, someone up there loves me.

I made landfall last night, but on a deserted island. That doesn't matter though, because there are plenty of fruit trees here and, best of all, about a million and one little streams full of clean, clear water.

I spent most of the night devouring fruit and guzzling the water, and now I sort of have a stomachache. One of the rules of survival - if you are forced to go without food for an extended period of time, when you eventually DO get said food, don't go chowing it down, eat it nice and slow and give your body time to get used to it again.

This island...it's creepy, though. I'm grateful it was here, because I would have died if it hadn't been, but it's got to be one of the eeriest places I've ever seen in my life. It was obviously populated once, a long time ago, but now it's just in ruins.

X x X

_Day 12_

I've spent most of today exploring and looking for anyone who lives here, but no luck so far. Old shops, some still sporting their wares, are all over the place, as are a bunch of rundown homes, and what I am fairly sure are Toa and Turaga residences. This island must have had a bunch of them. I've never seen so many references to Toa.

One name caught my eye earlier, and I admit to doing a double take when I saw it. Outside of each hut is a sign with the name of the former owner inscribed on it, and on one in the village I landed near was the name _Lhikan_. As in, Toa Lhikan from Turaga Vakama's stories.

How old must this island be, to have once housed Toa Lhikan?

It looks like it hasn't been populated since he left, though...

If I remember right, Turaga Vakama mentioned something about this place (whatever it was called) being decimated after Lhikan and some other Toa left it, and seeing it, I find "decimated" to be the wrong word. It looks like it was just...abandoned. Left. Forgotten.

What happened to the Matoran here? Where did they go?

_Later..._

Spent some time in one of the Turaga's huts, and things are a LITTLE bit clearer after that. I found a bunch of documents, and a lot of them were journal entries, much like the one I'm keeping right now. I felt weird reading someone else's private things, but I HAD to know what had happened to this place.

Apparently after Toa Lhikan, Natay, Terios, and Vastor left the island on special request of Turaga Dume of Metru Nui, things started to really go downhill for the whole island. There were droughts, famines, crop failures...the list went on and on. And when things FINALLY seemed to be looking up, there was a plague. A Toa of Plant Life called Aruna was the first one to come down with it, after a particularly dangerous mission that she had just returned from, apparently having carried the disease with her from wherever it was her mission took her to. The Turaga's account said that Aruna made it home, but was in a state of serious waste, so bad that she could hardly move without screaming. She lived for five more days before finally dying, but not before the disease had managed to spread.

It was a down slide from there on out. Matoran, Toa, and Turaga were dying left and right...the graveyards were filled with them. The Turaga who wrote this account next wrote that he and the only two other Turaga left alive were smart enough to realize that this plague was beyond their arts, and gathered their remaining Matoran, and then left their island forever, to search for a new home elsewhere on the Great Sea. Whether or not they found it I don't know, as he sort of left his journal here, but I find myself praying that they did. It must have been terrible, watching their friends die left and right and being unable to do anything about it.

Another thing, and this is seriously creepy: Toa Aruna would not speak of her mission after her return, and in her sleep before she died would moan one word: "Mutran". I admit to getting more than just a bit of a chill at that, but Mutran's been dead for years now. He's nothing to worry about anymore. If I'm right, I'm guessing Aruna's mission must have taken her to Destral, and she somehow managed to tangle with Mutran. I don't know everything about the Makuta race, nor do I pretend to, but I'm pretty sure he must have poisoned her. Everything I've ever heard about Mutran would support this. He was what could easily be called a "mad scientist", and I wouldn't have put it past him to have developed some sort of "super poison" that there was no cure for.

If that was the case, then Aruna was lucky to even get off of Destral alive, and indeed, to make it home. It must have taken all her strength...

Now I'm even more determined to find Nixie and bring her home. No one should have to go through that, dying alone far away from their home; it's just cruel.

Out of curiosity and a weird desire to pay some sort of respect to the fallen Toa of this island, I visited one of the graveyards; the one closest to this village I'm at right now. Lo and behold, there was Toa Aruna's gravestone.

I don't like graveyards (who does?). They make me sad, and all I can think is how terrible it is that not a one of these people are ever going to get back up again. Imagine those poor Matoran when they saw one of their strong Toa dying right in front of them.

There was nothing on Aruna's gravestone except for her name and a carving of her mask, as usual with these things. She had a Kanohi Mythrill, the Great Mask of Growth, one of those lesser known masks out there. I wasn't always a Toa, and it was still pretty recent that I even became one, but I still found a strange sort of fellowship with her. She died because of a Makuta, and at one point, I did too. I was able to come back, though. She wasn't.

...this is reminding me too much of Jaller's death right before I became Takanuva instead of just Takua the Chronicler. I'm just going to restock, and then I'm going to get out of here before this place drives me crazy. It's stupid, but I...feel like there are people WATCHING me here. Like all those Toa and Turaga and Matoran who died...never really left. It's putting me on edge.

So goodbye nameless island that was once home to Toa Lhikan! I hope I never see you again!

I DID find ONE uplifting piece of information, though: a little more to the southwest, there's an archipelago that's been noted, even back when these documents were first made, for being filled with "suspicious activity". If I go to it from my current position, I'll run into another island called Kaia Nui first, where it SHOULD still be populated (although given how long ago this was written, that information may be outdated by now).

Also, I am apparently rather off course from due south like I was supposed to be, thanks to my encounter with that sea monster a few days ago. I suppose I should be thankful though, since if I HAD been still going due south, I wouldn't have run into any islands soon enough to keep myself from dying of starvation and/or thirst.

I'll be taking this map with me, in any case. Yet another thing I should have considered: my sense of direction is ZIP. I do not have one. Nearly every time I've managed to make it somewhere, it's been pure fluke. It was thanks to Pewku mostly that I was even able to traverse Mata Nui without getting lost (and even then I still had problems). How I managed to find Matoro without her that one time is beyond me...oh no wait, he found me half dead in the snow, so that doesn't count. Ahhhh...

I wish I had a compass...and I wish I was off of this island already instead of gathering food and dashing back every few minutes to write something else down in this journal...

Anyway, a goal has now been realized instead of just drifting around and hoping something comes through: make it to Kaia Nui and see if there's anyone alive there, thus getting information on this suspicious-activity filled archipelago, then travel to said archipelago and check things out there. Question the locals as to whether or not they've seen a giant bird Rahi thing carrying a little blue Ga-Matoran, or have noticed any other "suspicious" activities. Easy.

X x X

_Day 14_

Had another encounter with a sea monster, but this time, managed to bring it down without the help of any OTHERS.

OK, so it wasn't really a sea monster, just a rather large Takea, but it still scared the protodermis out of me when it reared up out of the water and more or less leaped at me. I was lucky I happened to be using my staff at the time to help myself balance, because if I hadn't then it would have taken a nice big chunk out of my arm. And possibly my side too.

I spent the rest of the morning using my staff as a sort of bat; whenever the Takea leaped out at me, I would swing it and knock it away. After a while, it actually got to be pretty fun, and--

It just hit me that maybe that wasn't just ONE Takea but a whole BUNCH of them, and--

Oh Mata Nui, WHY. I was right, it's a pack. How did I not notice them all before?! Smart little buggers, only one coming out at a time to make it harder for dolts like me to realize there's more than one.

Remember what I wrote three or so days ago, about someone up there loving me? I take it back. I was obviously saved so that the Great Beings may continue to have fun tormenting me with various random sea monsters, and I doubt it's going to stop any time soon.

I want to go home REALLY bad, but more than anything, I wish whoever kidnapped Nixie had never been built. So many problems would have been avoided that way...

X x X

_Day 15_

The Takea are suspiciously absent today, although I think they may just be biding their time. Not a comforting thought, mere Rahi being that smart.

Another thought struck me last night right before I lashed the tiller so I could sleep to go in the direction of that archipelago, and the little island right before it: no one on Metru Nui knows where I am right now. For all they know, I might have just been kidnapped as well, although I'm hoping someone else saw Nixie get captured so that they know I had a valid reason for disappearing like I did.

What if the island's in danger? The Toa Nuva won't be able to help since they're all sort of powerless right now, and I don't know if the Mahri have gotten back from their own mission thing yet...

Oh man, what have I done? I basically just left Metru Nui unguarded, with only a bunch of practically powerless Toa for protection...

I've done stupid things before, but this is just beyond stupid. Wow.

As soon as I can, I'm going to write a letter to Jaller and let him know what happened. I'll put Turaga Vakama as the other correspondent, just in case Jaller's still not back to get it. That way, SOMEONE I trust will have gotten it, and will make it known that NO, I did NOT just abandon Metru Nui to black oblivion for no good reason.

I need to reach Kaia Nui NOW. Too bad this boat only has a sail and no oars to help speed things along. My one consolation in this is that it is a fast little boat, apparently made for speed, because Kai of Ga-Metru is just as addicted to going fast as Pohatu is, and thus designs all her boats that way.

And that reminds me, I need to pay her back when I get home, since I more or less stole her boat to go chasing after Nixie. Oh man, she's gonna kill me...

This mission seems to be bringing out the whiner in me. All I've done thus far is moan about how much I hate my life. That isn't very admirable Toa behavior. I bet Kopaka never complained about any of HIS missions...except when he was paired with Lewa, but then again, nearly EVERYONE who's paired with Lewa for missions complains about it. Lewa has got to be the worst thing at stealth since, well, anything.

And a lot of our missions require stealth.

I'm being unfair, since I'm probably even WORSE at stealth - the fact that I tend to glow and shine rather unintentionally, while great for providing light when one is needed, also makes me an excellent target, and the worst possible choice for a stealth mission besides Lewa the Klutz.

It's hard not to see something when it glows and stuff. You'd have to be blind not to see me.

X x X

**AN: Wow, what a drama queen.**

**Takanuva talks to himself, teehee.**

**Sigh...I have to start sleeping again...school begins soon...**

**The rest of the chapters are all written in a different, more story-esque format, since it's difficult for me to tell a story like this. It's still in Takanuva's POV, but it'll be a little more interesting after this. Not to mention easier to write.  
**

**Review, please!**


	3. Kitar

**New chapter, blah blah blah.**

**Hmmn...class starts up again on Monday D: Oh well, I've been getting bored. At least now I'll have something to do. I do better writing when I've got school or some other commitment, such as work, for some reason. Maybe because the urge to work transfers over a bit? Not too sure.**

**Disclaimer: As usual, I am afraid I must admit that I don't own Bionicle. Anyone you don't recognize as canon in this story, however, most likely belongs to me. Everyone else belongs to LEGO Enterprises.**

**Summary: Takanuva's journey to rescue a friend becomes so much more than a mere rescue when he finds that his quest leads him to a chain of islands known as the Nuian Archipelago, where monsters are said to rule and night is near eternal.**

**Chasing the Sun  
By: Saya Moonshadow**

"_And this is what I choose when it's all left up to me."_

X x X

_Day 16...right?_

Hey, I actually did something admirable today!

Yeah, that's right, I SAVED someone.

Well actually, I'm not too sure if he needed my help, but I did my civic duty anyway and saved him, regardless of whether he needed help or not.

And I learned things. Actually, I learned a lot of things. OK, where to start...

I had been following the map as best I could for the better part of the day, while wondering if I hadn't gotten myself lost anyway, when I heard some strange sounds. Like someone was screaming. Hero instincts kicking in, I moved the tiller of my boat around until I was traveling in the general direction of those yells.

What I found was what could possibly pass as some sort of mutant fish latched onto the oar of a boat a bit smaller than mine, while a red Matoran tugged frantically on it as well, screaming at the fish and doing his best not to be pulled into the water as well.

I had to hand it to the little guy - he was pretty brave to be standing up to such a big fish (with rather sharp teeth; does EVERYTHING in this region have sharp teeth or what?!) instead of trying to get away, like most others in his position would be doing. If _I _had been him, I probably would've just dropped the oar and used my hands to paddle away as fast as I could.

His boat lurched as the fish gave a mighty tug, and he almost fell into the water. At that moment, I chose to finally get in on the action and gave the fish a whack over the head with my staff.

The thing gave this sort of loud GULP sound, like it was swallowing a lot of water (which it probably was), and let go of the oar, diving back into the deeps with a dent in the shape of my staff in its head. I reached over and pulled the oar out of the water, grimacing. Wow, that thing left quite the marks in it...

I was distracted by the Matoran's voice, or, more specifically, by his accent. Maybe it's because I'm so used to the way we speak in the North, as I've never really been down South long enough to have a good chat with any of the natives, but his speech pattern struck me as really weird.

"Gar!" he snarled, glaring at me, "Whyja go an' do that, eh? I had 'im!"

I glared right back. "If that's the way you're going to treat me for SAVING you, then next time I won't bother!" I snapped back.

He snorted. "Don't need any weird-looking yellow Matoran ta save me," he said. "Coulda saved myself, always have."

I blinked. "Wait a minute, MATORAN? I'm no Matoran, I'm a Toa!"

"No you're not," he retorted. "Never seen your mask before, and b'lieve me, I've seen 'em all. An' I've never heard of a Toa that's white an' GOLD before." He narrowed his eyes at me and smirked. "Whassamatter, got mutated and too embarrassed to talk about it or somethin'?"

"I'm a TOA!" I snapped, and somehow managed to resist the urge to sigh angrily. Though I WAS getting rather frustrated... "My name is Takanuva, Toa of Light! And you?"

He went quiet, staring at me with wide eyes. After a moment, I began to feel unsure. "Uh, hello?"

"The Toa of Light's a legend," he said hoarsely. "There's no such thing. Turaga Masa said so."

"Well, Turaga Masa was wrong," I said. Finally, I was getting through to him. "Look, I didn't quite believe it at first either, but just trust me, alright? I swear I'm not lying."

"Y'could be lyin' about swearin' you're not lyin'," he said doubtfully. "But...alright, whatever. Toa Tak...Toa...?"

"Takanuva," I smiled. "Just call me Taka, though. My name's a little long, I know. What's your name?"

"Kitar," he replied. "Kitar o' Shinjete, in the Archipelago. I'm a weapon-maker."

Rather than go on with the introductions, I got straight on with the point. "Right. Do you know how to get to Kaia Nui? It's where I'm headed, for a pit stop, I guess. Then I'm off again. You know how to get there?"

Kitar grinned at me. "You're in luck - that's where I'm goin' too." he said, then picked up his oar and hopped into my boat. "Hope you don't mind sharin' your food with me - stupid fish took my pack," he explained, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "I was tryin' to beat it off and get my stuff back when it grabbed my oar and started pullin'. And that's when YOU came along. Right at the best moment, I guess y'could say."

"I have a knack for winding up wherever there happens to be any action," I sighed, although now that I think about it as I'm writing this, that DOES seem to be true. On Mata Nui, I was around when practically everything of consequence happened. Maybe I just have a knack for finding trouble...

The Matoran shrugged. "Eh, that's prob'ly a good thing fer a Toa," he said, and stuck his oar in the water, moving us a little to the right and squinting against the sun. "That way, yer always where yer needed most, right?"

I smiled. "That's a good way to think about it."

"'Course it is," he replied as I started to help him by adjusting the sail. Luckily the wind was behind us, or else we would have had one heck of a time paddling. "A Toa's gotta be able to save 'is people, an' if he's never there, then 'e's kinda useless, yeah? No point in bein' a Toa 'less you actually save people."

"By the way, Kitar," I said after a moment of just sailing, "you mentioned your island's in an archipelago?"

He nodded. "Yup. One heck of a place to live, lemme tell you. The suns never shine there, it's like livin' in Karzahni."

I blinked. "The suns never shine? Is it in a cave or something?" If so, then that was one heck of a big cave.

He shook his head. "Nah, nothin' like that. I don't think there's any cave big enough to hold us, 'less it was like underground of somethin..." He frowned. "It's just always dark there. Like...there's always a blanket over us or somethin'. That's why I left, I was lookin' for any sorta Toa to come an' give us a hand. It's not just the dark, y'know, we can handle that. It's the Rahi that've been givin' us a hard time. THEY'RE what we need help with."

Now I was starting to get really interested, although me and darkness really don't mix. As much as I hate to admit it, I've always been slightly scared of the dark. But Rahi were things I could deal with easily. "What's wrong with your Rahi? Are they getting sick or dying out or something?"

"No. They're..." His frown deepened. "They're goin' nuts, I guess. Used to be we had a kinda relationship with 'em, but in the past twenty years or so, they've just been actin' weird. Like...attackin' for no reason."

I shuddered. "What made them do that?"

"That's jus' the thing - we dunno." He stared out at the horizon for a minute. "First island it happened to was Yazoo. It was right before the shadow came, actually. The Ice Bats just started goin' crazy, attackin' people, cloudin' the sky, screechin' all day an' night..."

"And then the shadow came." I finished.

"Yeah...and then the shadow came. It only covered Yazoo at first, but then it spread t'all the other islands, one by one. S'only my island and Hazina that're left. And..." he hesitated, looking nervous. "The Takea on Hazina have started actin' weird, just like the other Rahi on all the other islands. Tha's mainly why I left now - I don't want Hazina endin' up like the others."

"Just the Takea?" I asked, surprised. "What about the other Rahi on that island?"

He shook his head. "No. Only the Takea. They're the main species, so maybe that's why they're bein' noticed more, but...all the other ones are still actin' normal. It's just the Ice Bats, Kikanalo, Kavinika, Takea, and Tunnelers that are bein' weird."

I fell silent, thinking. How odd...only a few species (and all of them fairly nasty with the possible exception of the Kikanalo, who still demanded a certain amount of respect) were acting up? And this was spreading like an epidemic: one thing being infected at a time. First the symptoms of the Rahi going crazy, and then this "blanket" (as Kitar put it) of shadow as the official disease. It wasn't a good thought.

"So anyway," Kitar said casually, which told me he was trying not to think of his problems for now, "What're YOU doin' out here? You're the only Toa I've come across. Guess that's cos there're so few islands this far South."

"You got that right," I muttered, then answered his question. "I'm...looking for someone, actually. A very good friend of mine was kidnapped a while ago, and as far as I could tell, the one who took her was flying this way. And on this island I came across a little while ago, it said something about an...archipelago...that had suspicious activity...?"

Kitar raised a brow at me as I gave a small laugh. "Guess that's probably your home, eh? Anyway, that seemed like the best lead I had, so I decided to head down there and see if I could find anything out about whoever took Nixie."

"Doesn't sound smart," he replied, trailing his oar through the water. "But I'm glad you were stupid enough ta think that way. If ya hadn't, I'd probably be fishbait right now and there'd be no one comin' to help us." Obviously this was a Matoran who didn't mince words and didn't care what he said, even when talking to a Toa. Typical Ta-Matoran. I remember I had been pretty much the same way. Several times, I had blurted out something I really probably shouldn't have in front of Tahu, only to be sure he would burn me to a cinder for it. Thankfully though, he usually just laughed and told me that I had guts.

Hey, at least I'm still alive, right?

"So, why'd you only just now decide to come get help? Why not before?"

Kitar now looked slightly embarrassed. "Well, we thought we could handle it. And I, uh, didn't exactly have permission ta go, actually...I kinda snuck off when Turaga Masa wasn't lookin'. He won't be too happy with me when I get back, but at least I found someone who'll help, right? And...I don't want Hazina ta end up like the others."

"But it's not even your island that's being infected." I said. "What's so special about Hazina that...oh." I knew that look. It was the same look Jaller got when thinking about Hahli before they started their official...thing. And, well, to be honest, he STILL got that look on his face from time to time.

I grinned. "It's a good thing your mask is red."

"Shut up!" he snapped. "It's not like that, OK? Just...one o' my best friends lives on Hazina, an' she's always on the lake, so I don't wan' her to get hurt by the Takea!"

"Whoa, chill out!" I raised my hands up. "I'm not making fun of you. It's a good thing you care about your friend enough to not want her to get hurt, trust me. I'm like that with all my friends too. It's what friends are about."

"Hmmmn..." He jabbed his oar into the water hard enough to send water flying into the air. "She's too nice fer me to just let 'er get hurt." he finally burst out. "She's helped me out a LOT an' I can never do anything for her - she's a pacifist, so I can't make any weapons for her and weapons are all I know how ta make." He sighed aggravatedly.

I had to smile at this. "Sounds like a good friend."

Kitar nodded vigorously. "Yeah. She is." He cleared his throat. "We should be reachin' Kaia Nui in a couple hours - I can see it." He pointed, and I followed his finger to a large lump in the slightly near distance that I recognized as a land mass.

"It's still populated, right?" The information I had read on the deserted island might have been outdated, for all I knew, after all.

Kitar rolled his eyes at me. "Why would I be takin' you there if it wasn't, Lightstone Face?"

I frowned. Lightstone Face? This was going to be one interesting journey.

X x X

_**End Journal Transmission**_

X x X

A dark shape stood before an altar on a small island that was shrouded with light. Despite the light pouring in on him at all angles, his form remained dark, as if he were absorbing it. On the altar in front of his was an unrolled scroll, covered in ancient writing, a language so old it was practically unknown.

Laid out on its back on the altar as well was a Matoran, eyes closed. She was still alive, he knew - her breathing, though faint, was still audible. He needed her alive. A corpse was no use to him in this experiment.

Running one finger down the runes on the scroll, he began to chant, and as his finger trailed across each rune, it glowed, a strange blue mist seeping out of it and settling into the body of the unconscious Matoran.

He glanced at another scroll that was hanging on the wall, once glowing so bright with power and now with only three of its seven sections still illuminated. As he watched, the one still glowing blue flickered and then went out.

He had to repress a chuckle when an unearthly scream, distant from where he was but again still audible, rent the air, and he looked out the window at the shadows that now began to cover yet another portion of this pitiful place. The scream increased in volume, joined by the voices of many others, and he knew it had been a success.

Only one more to go before he could blot out the hideous light that illuminated the seventh sector. He had already tried to steal the light from that second-to-last one, but had failed. The sacrifice hadn't had the right attributes needed for it to work, and the clouds of shadow had lasted for only a few days before disappearing.

"Someone with the right attribute..." he whispered. "Why can I not find him? Where else is there to search?"

The answer to that question was not visible, and so he turned away and relished the victory he had had just now instead. He would dwell on that other problem later.

X x X

**AN: OK! Hopefully that wasn't TOO boring for you, since it was mostly dialogue. But I also hope it cleared some things up as well without giving away TOO much. It doesn't sound very journal-y to me, but I didn't like the way I had written this chapter first, so I scrapped it and wrote it again. Feels more natural now. And that's the way I tend to write in my own journals, just like I'm writing a regular story, so hopefully it works for you.**

**Chapter 4 is in the works, and I'm wrestling with it and my other stories right now. The problem is that I'm just not feeling inspired to write. When I get back into class, that'll change though. As stated above, I always seem to do better writing when I've got some other kind of commitment. I'm not complaining, though.**

**Review, please!**


	4. Offering Assistance

**Phwa, inspiration hits at the weirdest times. But anyway, I was talking to my best friend and she gave me a few ideas for this story. So you guys really have HER to thank for me finishing up this chapter!**

**Unfortunately, my great uncle is in the hospital with cancer right now, so I probably won****'****t be updating this for a while. I found out about this pretty much as soon as I was done writing this chapter, and it...does not make me happy. So, um, yeah. Updates will be slow.**

**Disclaimer: As usual, I am afraid I must admit that I don't own Bionicle. Anyone you don't recognize as canon in this story, however, most likely belongs to me. Everyone else belongs to LEGO Enterprises.**

**Summary: Takanuva's journey to rescue a friend becomes so much more than a mere rescue when he finds that his quest leads him to a chain of islands known as the Nuian Archipelago, where monsters are said to rule and night is near eternal.**

**Chasing the Sun  
By: Saya Moonshadow**

"_Are you crazy?!"_

"_Oh no. I was just bored, and this seemed vaguely stimulating."_

X x X

_Day 18_

It's not just Nixie.

Matoran from all over have gone missing.

At least, that's what the mail guy on Kaia Nui said, from reports and things he's heard while traveling and delivering mail. A Ko-Matoran from Voya Nui was the first on the list to go missing, according to him, and then an Onu-Matoran from some other place that I don't remember the name of. The only type of Matoran (of the six original elements, anyway) not to go missing so far is a Ta-Matoran.

And it's only one of each, which is the most puzzling thing about all of this business. Usually when these things happen, the mail guy explained, you hear about tons of people from one island being kidnapped or killed or whatever the situation is. Not one from each island. It was just weird.

This news only made me even more desperate to reach Kitar's Archipelago, and so we set off immediately after re-provisioning our boat with seemingly enough food to feed the better part of Ta-Metru for a few years. In my haste, I completely forgot to write and send a letter out to Jaller and Turaga Vakama to let them know where I was, and it wasn't until we were too far away to turn back that I realized this. As of right now, I'm still cursing myself.

Curses.

Ah well. My mission is more important than sending some letter, anyway.

While we were sailing towards Kaia Nui, Kitar gave me a little more information on his home. Apparently its full name is the Nuian Archipelago and is formed of a chain of seven islands, one for each element, including Light. However, the island that was reserved for Light is basically deserted, housing only a grand temple at its center. An abandoned temple, nonetheless, since the last Keeper was killed around four to five thousand years ago in some natural disaster.

The Rahi that correspond for each island as its sort of national symbol go as such:

Shinjete: Muaka

Entiry: Kikanalo

Iban: Tunneler

Yazoo: Ice Bat

Hazina: Takea

Zelo: Kavinika

Each Rahi tribe is led by a sort of "King" or "Queen", and their leadership is NEVER to be disputed. Not even the Turaga can disrespect a Rahi ruler, so "revered" and "powerful" are they.

Me? I'm just glad there are apparently no Rahkshi around here. In fact, Kitar doesn't even know what a Rahkshi is, and he's a lucky Matoran for it.

From what he tells me, though, despite the fact that the Rahi rulers have to be respected, some of them have made friends with the Turaga to a certain degree. The Kikanalo King was very good friends with Turaga Iku, even consenting to allow him to ride upon its back at times. And he tells me several times how Turaga Masa will sometimes just go out and start up a conversation with the Muaka King. Or used to, anyway, before all the Rahi started going nuts.

The water here is pretty warm. I can trail my hands in it without having to worry about frostbite later, like in the North. Well, at least I've found ONE of the South's redeeming qualities...I've always loved heat. I suppose it comes from thinking I was a Ta-Matoran for so long, but really, heat is one of my favorite things. Not that I mind the cold as much as certain OTHERS do, but I'd definitely take warm over cold. So the water temperature was a pleasant surprise. (Pleasant, for once...)

Kitar also went on to describe each island's main features: Shinjete's volcano, Yazoo's mountain, and so on. I have to say, it sort of reminds me of Mata Nui. That island had some of those same exact features, corresponding to element. It's interesting to think that the Great Spirit may have reused ideas he found particularly pleasing in numerous islands.

Anyway, according to Kitar, we should arrive at the Archipelago around mid-afternoon tomorrow. It'll be nice, I'm starting to REALLY get sick of sailing. I can't count the number of times I've thrown up overboard...

X x X

_Day 19_

Well, that was...interesting.

In a weird way. I'm still trying to figure out whether it's good or bad.

Alright, so let's start at the beginning here.

As Kitar had predicted, around noontime we made a landing on his island, having spotted it when there was enough light from the sun to do so. The first thing in my head, besides the thoughts of, _Oh sweet blessed land_, were something along the lines of, _This place reminds me of Ta-Koro._

It's sweltering hot here, just the way I like it. You can practically see the heat waves rising from the lava flows coming from the volcano. One thing that bothered me, though, is that there's not a Muaka in sight. Kitar spent a good deal of the trip describing how everywhere you look there should be at least two or three of them. It just goes to show how much this place is already deteriorating since he left it a month ago.

The first thing I did once the boat hit the sand of the beach was to fall out of it, practically hugging the ground and swearing never to go on another boat ever again. I was interrupted in this by Kitar's nervous laugh of, "Oh, hi there, Turaga Masa! How's it goin'?" and looked up.

Standing on the beach in front of us and tapping one foot was a red Turaga, with a red Kaukau mask on his face. What a Fire Turaga was doing with a Kaukau is beyond me, since that mask is usually worn only by Ga-Matoran, Turaga, and Toa, but whatever makes him happy, I guess. He wasn't looking very pleased, either, and I scrambled to my feet, trying to look at least a LITTLE bit dignified after my little display just then.

"No better than it was before you ran away," this Turaga snapped, and Kitar actually flinched. "Er, well, you see, Turaga, I wasn't exactly runnin' away, I was--"

"Leaving without permission? No letter of explanation or even a simple abbreviated note! No one had a clue where you were! Right when we needed you the most, no less!" Turaga Masa cut him off like a pro. This guy could probably give Turaga Vakama a run for his money when it came to lectures, that much was obvious. But under the anger, it was also obvious that he was relieved Kitar was home.

So Kitar had done what I had done - simply left without telling anyone. When he told me he hadn't had permission to leave, I had assumed he'd told at least this Ga-Matoran who he was so hung up over, but apparently he hadn't. I couldn't really fault him for this, as I had more or less done the same thing, but _I_ am a Toa. And I was chasing after a kidnapper. And had to get going before I lost the trail, which of course I did end up losing anyway, despite my best efforts.

But Kitar had had a good reason too, right? He'd just wanted to find help for his people. Both a fault and a virtue, it seems. Realizing this only made me want to help them even more, and before the conversation could go on, I bowed to Turaga Masa.

"Takanuva, Toa of Light, at your service." I said as I went down, and Masa turned to look at me, jumping a little when he saw me. "Kitar said you were in need of some help?" I tried to keep my voice as professional as possible, mimicking the tone I'd heard Tahu use when I was on missions with him.

Turaga Masa looked me up and down. "...indeed we are, Toa...Takanuva." He raised a brow as he continued to look at me.

I smiled. "You can call me Taka if you want, my name's a little long. But that aside, I'm here to help in any way that I can. All I ask is for some help in return on my own mission."

After a moment of glaring at Kitar, who at this point had taken to peeking over the rim of the boat at the Turaga and ducking whenever anyone looked at him, Masa nodded. "If you can be of any assistance to us, we'll gladly help you in any way we can. Come with me. Kitar, you come as well once you have secured the boat to the docks. We'll be in my home. As soon as I'm done talking to Toa Takanuva, we'll have to find a punishment for you. Hurry along."

Punishment? For trying to find help? "Why does he need to be punished?" I asked as we started walking and Kitar began to drag the boat away towards a few wooden structures I recognized as a cluster of docks. "He was just looking for help!"

For the first time, Masa smiled. "Indeed he was, and I'm grateful to him for it. He always was a rather stubborn personality. But he DID disobey me, Toa Takanuva. As I'm sure you noticed, it's more than dangerous out on the ocean for a single being. I would really prefer not to have to mourn yet another of my Ta-Matoran."

"Another?"

His smile turned a little sad at that. "The reason Kitar was so adamant about setting out to find help was because one of our Ta-Matoran was taken by the Muaka. I denied him that, of course, but the next morning, he was gone. And right after that, the darkness came. Thankfully it only lasted a few days, but that doesn't change the fact that we had just lost one, possibly two, of our friends, does it?"

"No." I said quietly. "It doesn't."

Turaga Masa, despite his stern-ness towards Kitar, clearly loved his island and wanted nothing more than a chance to save it. I didn't blame him. If it were Metru Nui under attack or something, I'd feel the exact same way.

I received a great deal of stares and whispers when Masa led me through his community, and had to resist the urge to walk faster. I hated being stared at. White Toa weren't that uncommon, but white Toa with gold armor and a gold mask? That was practically unheard of. That, and the fact that no Toa had been seen on this chain of islands probably since its Turaga were decommissioned. I may not have blamed them for being curious, but it was still annoying. Not to mention uncomfortable to have all these Ta-Matoran staring at me.

Finally, we reached Masa's hut and were away from all the stares and whispers. I had to hold in a sigh of relief when the door shut and took the seat I was offered. Masa himself merely leaned on his staff and said, "Now, before we get started, tell me why you're here. And how you came to be. I was under the impression that a Toa of Light was a mere legend."

It took me the better part of an hour to explain just how a Toa of Light could possibly exist, and then another hour to explain what I was doing in the South. Some of his questions I couldn't answer, as I didn't know the answers myself. By the end of it, Masa had the same thoughtful look on his face that my own Turaga got whenever something interesting and out of the ordinary happened.

"That is indeed unfortunate," he said when I had finished telling him what had happened to the Toa Nuva and to Nixie. "For your friends to lose their powers...and then in the midst of it all, for another friend to be kidnapped..."

"This seemed like the most likely place to look." I said. "On another island I found before coming across Kitar, it said that this place was filled with 'suspicious activity'. And Matoran from other islands have been kidnapped as well."

"Was this island, by any chance, abandoned?" he cut me off just as I was about to go on about the missing Matoran.

"Er, yeah," I said, surprised. "But how'd YOU know that?"

He smiled. "You're looking at one of the last survivors of that place. Sad story indeed, that was. I assume you saw the graveyards?"

All I could do at this point was nod. So this WAS the suspicious archipelago that unknown Turaga's journal had talked about. "Y-yeah, I saw it. And I read what happened as well. And about what happened to Aruna."

Masa sighed. "Poor Aruna. She didn't deserve all of that what happened to her on her journey. First to become so ill and then to be the cause of so many other deaths...the Matoran and many Toa, too, for that matter were not kind to her memory, let me tell you. She was cursed most bitterly by the time we left."

"But why? All she did was try to make it home!"

"And that's just it. By coming home while she was so sick, she ensured that her illness would spread and nearly caused the genocide of her people. Of course, she could not have known it was contagious, but all the same..." He sighed again. "I suppose it was better than never knowing what had happened to her. But enough of that. It's in the past, and can never be changed. How is it that we may help YOU, Toa Takanuva? You mentioned you wanted our help as well."

I blinked at the change of subject. "Uh, by telling me anything you know, I guess. All I know is that whoever it was who took Nixie was heading south. And Kitar mentioned that the mail Matoran from Kaia Nui comes here often and chats a lot while he's working. Any information would be helpful, really."

Masa shook his head. "All we've heard is that Matoran have been going missing. I'd count our lost brother among them if I hadn't seen for myself as he was dragged away by the Muaka. And it's rather hard to observe any odd dealings when five sevenths of your home is covered in darkness, Toa Takanuva."

There was a _clang_ from the doorway, and we turned to see Kitar, who had just come in and knocked a small metal trash can over at the Turaga's words. "What?" he asked, eyes wide. "Five sevenths? T-Turaga, wh-what-?"

"I'm sorry, Kitar," Masa said heavily. "I was going to tell you as soon as possible. Two days ago, Hazina was taken. I'm sorry."

"But...but Yuuka? She's OK, right?" he asked, running up to the Turaga. "Tell me she's OK!"

"As far as I know, she is fine." Masa said calmly, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Keep in mind that nearly all the other islands have been taken as well and are getting along just fine. Er, well, as fine as they can, considering the circumstances. And Yuuka is a strong Matoran. She can take care of herself."

Kitar's only response was to moan and drop to his knees. "She spends all her time on the lake!" he mumbled. "The Takea're gonna get her, I know it!"

"Kitar," Masa snapped, "Yuuka will be fine, and sitting here and moaning about her will accomplish nothing. Instead of doing that, why don't you send her a letter to make sure? Or better yet, at the next opportunity, go and see her? Now, onto more important matters."

He sat down at the desk in the middle of the hut and gestured for me and Kitar to sit in the two chairs standing before it. "Before you start investigating around here, you should know a bit more about our home. I can only tell you so much about the other islands, but I will not leave anything about Shinjete out. You'll have to find the other Turaga to tell you about the rest of the Archipelago."

"Alright." I nodded. "Tell me what you know."

The island of Shinjete wasn't exactly what could be called large, but I wouldn't say it was tiny either. From the map on the wall of Turaga Masa's hut, I'd say it was only about slightly smaller than Ta-Wahi on Mata Nui had been. The volcano took up roughly half the land, and dominated the entire right side of the island. As was explained to me, despite the lava flows and high temperatures, a great many Rahi lived on its sides, which the Ta-Matoran hunted for food. The sole exception being the Muaka, of course. It also served as a source of income, with the other islands being only too willing to buy goods that were made in various smithies that had been built around the lower lava flows for that exact purpose.

As he had told me, he couldn't really say much about the other islands other than their immediate features, most of which Kitar had already told me. At my request, he told me about the Rahi attacks and the general situation of what had been going on since the first one.

The first Rahi attack was an Ice Bat on a Matoran, on Yazoo. At the time, it was just thought to be that the Matoran had done something to anger it, but the bat ended up chasing him all the way back to the village. And after that, it became nearly impossible to leave the village's boundaries without being attacked by at least two or three Ice Bats at the same time. Needless to say, this was a blow on Yazoo's economy, as harvesting the Frost Roses that they sell has only become increasingly more difficult as time goes on. Pretty soon, Masa told me, he wouldn't be surprised if they weren't able to get any at all.

After that, the Tunnelers on Iban rampaged through the mines, collapsing several tunnels and slowing work down almost to a halt. The Onu-Matoran don't dare go down into the deeper tunnels anymore for fear of what the Tunnelers might do. I don't blame them. I don't think I'd go down into the tunnels even if I WEREN'T scared of the Rahi; darkness isn't exactly my thing. I'm just lucky I naturally glow these days. Even then, though, I can't help but feel on edge when it's dark.

The Le-Matoran were probably the unluckiest of the lot: they actually had to leave their homes. They lived just beyond the outskirts of their island's forest, but after several strange attacks by unknown and unseen assailants, were forced to leave and build makeshift homes on the shore. Right before this happened, the Kavinika, who used to be somewhat friendly, roaming all over the place and acting as guardians to the Matoran, retreated into the forest and hadn't been seen since.

The Po-Matoran had it hard as well. The first Kikanalo attack was nothing short of disastrous; they had caused a rockslide that buried more than a few homes and nearly killed quite a few Matoran who were buried underneath all the rubble. Thankfully they were able to dig them out in time, but all the same, they lived in constant fear of another such attack.

As for the Ga-Matoran on Hazina, that one was still...well, unknown. No one had heard word of them and whether or not they were still all OK in there. Not that no one had tried, but it was practically impossible to get to the island. The Takea attacked any and all boats that came near, forcing them to turn back. Kitar wouldn't be getting a letter or anything into there any time soon, that was for sure.

I couldn't help but notice that Masa said nothing about his own island's Rahi, with the exception of the one Matoran they had taken. Kitar had mentioned to me that Masa was friends with the Muaka King, so maybe that had something to do with it. I know I wouldn't want to have to say something bad about my friends. Or maybe since their island was the one with the least amount of problems, he didn't feel a need to tell me about it for fear of sounding like he was complaining. I'm really not sure. Who knows what goes on in the minds of Turaga? I sure don't.

"Turaga!" Another Matoran burst through the doorway, nearly tripping over his own feet in his hurry. He stopped, panting for breath, then bowed, shoving something into Masa's hands. "Word just came from Iban. The Tunnelers've taken another one. They're running short on goods now, Turaga."

"Yes, I see that," Masa frowned, reading over the note he had just been given. "How many are left...three? Great Spirits, at this rate they'll lose everything within a week!"

"How many of what are left?" I asked, and he looked at me. "Mining tunnels," he replied. "I told you the Onu-Matoran were too scared to go down into the deeper tunnels, right? Well, the Tunnelers have also been...taking over, I guess, some of the higher ones. Only three tunnels out of over a hundred are still safe for the miners to go into."

Three? Out of over a HUNDRED? Was he serious? Grabbing the note from him and reading it for myself, I could see with this was true and actually felt my heart sink. Masa was right, at this rate those poor Matoran would have nothing left. If something wasn't done, they wouldn't be able to support themselves. And what would happen once all the tunnels were conquered? Would the Rahi move onto the village itself? They needed help, and badly.

Helping was what I was here for though, right? As urgently as I wanted to get started with looking for Nixie, I couldn't just sit back and let an entire village be in danger while I was here and, more importantly, able to help them. I had no doubt that if it were Tahu or any of the Toa Nuva in my place, they wouldn't hesitate to offer their services.

So I didn't either.

"I'll go." I said, and the gratitude in Masa's eyes at my statement shattered any doubts that I'd been feeling about it. "I told you I'd do what I could, didn't I? And I'm not just going to sit around and wait for the Tunnelers to make another move. Any more stuff like this, and that island will suffer."

_But it will be dark,_ something in the back of my mind whispered to me. _Dark, dark, crushing darkness. We don't like the dark, remember? The dark makes us think of--_

Masa spoke before it could go on, and I was grateful for that. I didn't want to be reminded of what the dark made me think of. "Are...are you sure?" he asked. "We'd be grateful, of course, but there's a risk here, Toa Takanuva. Tunnelers are nothing to be taken lightly. I'm sure you know of their powers?" At my nod, he went on, "Good, at least you know what you're doing..."

Did I really? I couldn't say that I truly knew what I was getting myself into, after all, I'd only just arrived here and I was already offering myself up to save them! As I write this, I STILL can't say I know what I'm doing.

A flicker of movement caught my eye, and I turned to look at Kitar, who had just shifted uncomfortably. That's right, he still had his punishment coming up for leaving the island without permission. It would be a shame to have to leave him here; he wasn't such bad company to have. And he was dedicated to fixing just whatever was wrong with his home.

Not to mention he probably knew the way around much better than I did, and could tell me things as I went along...

"Then again, I'm not exactly certain of the way around here," I said, and Kitar looked at me. So did Masa, but he was looking slightly amused. It really wouldn't have surprised me if he knew what I was getting at, and one look told me he did. "I admit, I get lost easily. Even with a map. If it hadn't been for Kitar, I would never have found your island. A guide would be a big help. And much appreciated."

"Indeed." Masa gave a smile. "I'm afraid, however, I can spare no one to guide you, Toa Takanuva. But Kitar...you still have your punishment for disobeying me to perform."

"I'll p'form my punishment however you see fit, Turaga," Kitar mumbled sullenly. I had no doubt he was seething over the fact that even though HE had been the one to be of the biggest help (by finding me), he was still being punished. I didn't blame him for not being happy.

"That's just it, Kitar," Masa said. "There's really no job around here that you can't do easily, and punishments should require SOME amount of effort. Wouldn't you agree, Toa Takanuva?"

"Definitely." I nodded. "Punishments. Effort. Yes."

Several times I had been punished by Turaga Vakama for sneaking off to go lava boarding while I was supposed to be working, back when I was still just Takua, and before I was the Chronicler. Mostly I had been assigned guard duty, which I hated because nothing ever seemed to happen, but a few times he'd made me do paperwork. Nothing was worse than paperwork, especially when it regarded the machines in Ta-Koro used to control the flow of lava from the Mangai volcano. By the time that was over, I had been begging the Great Beings to just kill me where I sat.

"And being a guide to a Toa would require quite a bit of effort, wouldn't it, Kitar?"

Kitar looked up, a grin on his face, but he quickly hid it and bowed low. "Thank you - er, um, yeah, bein' a guide's a lotta work, Turaga. But I can do it, no problem!"

"Excellent." Masa said, and stood up. "That shall be your punishment then. Until our Archipelago is back to normal, you shall be Toa Takanuva's guide, and answer any and all questions that you can. Remember, a lack of proper information can be fatal, Kitar."

"I remember, Turaga. I won't let anything happen!"

And there you have it, journal-thing. I was given a space on the floor in Kitar's hut (he offered me the bed, but I said no) for the night, and tomorrow morning we set off for Iban as soon as the sun's up. And here I sit with my journal, just writing and listening to Kitar babble about everything he knows regarding to Tunnelers and Iban itself.

I can't say I'm too thrilled about crossing over into this "blanket of shadow" to go to Iban, but I'll do what I have to to help. My personal phobias are nowhere near as important as the lives of an entire village of Matoran. No matter how much the thought of that much darkness all around me makes me shiver.

Note to self: before going into the mines to see just what's the matter with those Tunnelers (and possibly getting killed in the process), make sure to find and talk to Iban's Turaga and get some more information. As Masa had so eloquently put it, a lack of proper information could be fatal, and I had no intention of getting myself killed because I didn't know what I was up against. I already have a list of questions I plan on asking, and I just hope I still remember them when I find this Turaga.

So I'll be going up against a bunch of Tunnelers tomorrow. Shouldn't be TOO big of a problem, right? But wait, aren't most Tunnelers...big? And aren't the mad ones supposed to be nastier than a Makuta? I remember hearing at some point that it had taken two Toa Metru just to immobilize ONE mad Tunneler, never mind actually defeating it...

And there's only one of me. Well, two if you count Kitar, but I doubt he'll be able to help me against a crazy Tunneler.

Mata Nui, what have I gotten myself into?

Another note to self: next time I decide to go on an epic journey, make sure to bring at least three other Toa with me. Do you think I should start drawing up a will, on the rather large chance that I won't make it back alive?

X x X

**AN: Nox Arcana's music is inspiring. Not to mention kind of creepy, but hey, it gets me in the mood to write for this story, so I can't complain.**

**Haha, poor Takanuva just can't seem to stay out of these life-or-death situations, eh? He's a perseverant little nut though, so I'm sure he'll be alright!**

**This story seems to be moving a little fast to me, though. Already he's been coerced into saving at least one island. But that's not to say everything will be given away immediately. Not at all. That would take all the fun out of it.**

**Anyway, my little complaints about the story aside, please tell me your thoughts!**


	5. Claustrophobia, Pt 1

**Omnomnom...kind of hungry and munching on random foods here. Anyway - oh hai gaiz! Didja miss me? Sorry for the wait, but between choir concerts, school essays, tests, and everything else, I've had VERY little time to write.**

**Apologies if this chapter seems weird to you, but I wrote most of it at about two in the morning. Ayup.**

**Disclaimer: As usual, I am afraid I must admit that I don't own Bionicle. Anyone you don't recognize as canon in this story, however, most likely belongs to me. Everyone else belongs to LEGO Enterprises.**

**Summary: Takanuva's journey to rescue a friend becomes so much more than a mere rescue when he finds that his quest leads him to a chain of islands known as the Nuian Archipelago, where monsters are said to rule and night is near eternal.**

**Chasing the Sun  
By: Saya Moonshadow**

"_What is insanity, anyway? Is it when you scream and everyone else whispers, or is it when you fight for what's right, even when everyone else thinks you're wrong?"_

X x X

_Day 24_

It's been five days since I wrote in this thing, and let me begin by saying that those five days are NOT any that I want to re-experience.

The boat ride to the island of Iban was uneventful. The most exciting thing that happened was Kitar jabbering nervously about how he hoped we wouldn't be too late to save the inhabitants. I had to admit that I agreed with him, although my thoughts stayed mostly on the Tunnelers. Just how I was going to deal with them was beyond me, but I was determined to honor my promise to help.

I had a vague idea as to what I could do, but there was no way I could see that I could remedy it once I was done. If only I had had a different element...

Anyway. My shortcomings aside, we arrived on Iban after a few short hours, before noon. Not that you'd know the time without a clock, though.

I had started to notice the sky getting darker a while before, but it was when we drew closer to the island that I saw just how dark it was. There was a blanket of shadow, stretching from deep into the water all the way into the sky, surrounding Iban, like some sort of dark veil. Just looking at it made me feel queasy.

"Is it safe?" I asked Kitar, and he shrugged at me.

"I think so," he said, biting his lip. "I haven't been to any-a the other islands 'cept Hazina recently, but others've been able to get in an' outta them, so I GUESS it's safe to cross..."

"Then let's get going," I said before either of us could chicken out. Picking up my oar (which I had been loaned by one of the Ta-Matoran on Shinjete), I dipped it into the water and propelled us forward.

It was like going through a cold waterfall, really - as soon as the dark hit me, I gasped from the sudden cold that ran over me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kitar do the same. The cold persisted the entire time as we docked, and I began to regret not bringing a cloak or something. All I had was my pack. At least Kitar, being a Ta-Matoran, had some sort of inner fire to keep him warm.

I shivered as I looked around the place, squinting through the dark. My mask was really the only source of good light; the lightstones that had been mounted on the signposts telling where the village was were dim, barely casting enough light for us to read the message.

About a mile north, that-a-way. As soon as Kitar had tied the boat down, I gestured for him to follow me and to keep close. Who knew what was lurking in all this dark?

There were other signposts with lightstones mounted on them, pointing the way to the village. Although all that dim light managed to do was look like a bunch of eyes. Very hostile eyes. I shivered again; it felt like we were being watched. And knowing my luck, we probably were. This realization made me hurry, practically dragging Kitar along in my haste to reach the village.

I wasn't all that surprised when the last signpost simply held an arrow pointing to a large hole in the ground. More specifically, a tunnel leading underground. This place really WAS just like Mata Nui. The Onu-Matoran lived underground, to be closer to their element. Just like Mata Nui...

"Do we have to go down there?" I was jerked out of my thoughts by Kitar's question, and nodded, starting down. He followed me, although I could practically smell his trepidation by then. Being in a giant hole obviously wasn't his idea of fun. Nor was it mine, to be honest.

Upon stepping further down into it, I stopped and pressed a hand to my chest as it seemed to constrict on me. The walls were closing in, and I could practically _hear_ Makuta Teridax's voice whispering to me to bring him the Avohkii. For a split second, the dark became tangible, pressing down on me, devouring my light, restricting my breathing, and making my mind go blank with fear at the same time, like some sort of terrible Rahi.

Then a hand tugged at my leg, and suddenly, I could breathe again. Panting a bit, I looked down at Kitar, who was looking back at me questioningly. Had he seen my almost-panic attack? Without a word, I took another step into the tunnel, and another, and another, and I heard him following me.

The tunnel went down about a quarter of a mile, a slow slope that deepened as we went down. Make no mistake, it would be a job getting back up to the surface later.

Dim lightstones greeted us as the tunnel ended and we stepped into an enormous cave with dwellings built into the walls, staircases leading up to each one. To my surprise, I saw that they had carved everything out of the same stone - the stone of the wall. The huts simply melted into the cave wall behind them.

"They had help," Kitar said, "from a Toa of Stone an' the Po-Matoran. They didn't do this on their own."

"What about a Toa of Earth?" I asked. "Did they have one helping them too?"

Kitar shook his head. "He was already a Turaga by then."

So some of these Turaga had been Turaga longer than others, not all changed at the same time as the Metru had been. Interesting. I wondered just how long ago there had still been Toa in this archipelago.

I also wondered just where all the Matoran were. This cave was virtually lifeless. Where were they? Had they escaped or something? I doubted it; it takes time to move an entire village, especially since supplies and things are needed. "HELLO?" I shouted, cupping my hand around my mouth to amplify it. I needn't have bothered; the cave's acoustics were wonderful, and my own voice echoed back at me several times.

"Anyone home?" Kitar added his voice to mine.

Nothing. I couldn't hear anything from the huts, either, which only heightened my nerves.

Frowning, I moved past Kitar and began to climb one of the staircases, peering into the nearest hut. Empty. Every other one that I checked was the same.

I turned back and looked at Kitar, shaking my head. His face darkened, obviously thinking the same thing that I was - hopefully they had some sort of hiding place and the worst case scenario of the Tunnelers taking them had not occurred. Despite this, I felt fairly certain the circumstances were still bad for the Onu-Matoran.

As I descended the stairs, I took a look at the middle of the ground of the cave, noticing that it just...disappeared after a bit. "Kitar, what's that?" I asked, pointing to it, and he turned to follow my finger's path.

"The sign right there says, 'Danger, Keep Away'," he called back. "Other than that...sorry."

I sighed. Of course I couldn't rely on him to know every little thing about the islands, especially those that weren't even his own. Pity, that would have been useful. "You don't know how that got there?"

He shook his head, still staring at the huge hole. "Nope, none-a my friends from here ever mentioned it before, and this's the first time I've ever been here. But hey, it's all spiral-y!" He dashed over and knelt at its edge, staring down into it.

I felt a momentary surge of fear as he did this; if he wasn't careful, he was going to fall in! "Get away from there!" I snapped, and he gave me a reproachful glare over his shoulder. "Not gonna fall, Lightstone Face, jeez!" he snapped back. "What ARE you, my Builder?"

"Mata Nui forbid." I huffed, walking up behind him, careful to stay a respectable distance away. I'm not exactly the most coordinated person around, and I didn't trust myself to trip over something (most likely myself) and fall face first into it. "And what's this about it being spiral-y? Better yet, where are the mines? Ugh, wouldn't it be cruel if this...were...oh no."

I groaned and smacked my forehead, closing my eyes shut tight. I had just seen a lever and pulley on the other side of the hole, and there was no doubt in my mind what they were for. "Well, at least we know where the mines are..." I leaned over the hole and grimaced as I looked down into it. Sure enough, the ropes attached to the pulley extended all the way down into the blackness, and sure enough, the hole WAS spiral-shaped - almost like a whirlpool. Obviously it had been drilled, although just how was anyone's guess. The hole wasn't quite as big as I'd originally thought it was, but it was still a fairly decent sized hole.

The bottom was not visible, which I had expected. But, I HAD expected for there to be lightstones or some other light source situated in it. A closer inspection revealed nothing of the sort. "How can they mine if there's no light?"

"Maybe they tie lightstones to their masks or somethin'?" Kitar suggested.

Right, because that makes sense. Tying a lightstone to your mask when you can just use a lantern...hey, that was probably it, they used lanterns. This made sense, but didn't stop me from wishing there was some sort of permanent light source down there.

I was interrupted by Kitar asking, "So...should we, like...go check things out now?" He was pointing at the lever and pulley system, which were obviously part of some sort of elevator system. Onu-Metru had this same device situated all over it, just in a more...ah, sophisticated way.

As much as I wished to say, _"No, of course not"_ and go back up above ground, there wasn't much of a choice here. I'd promised to help, which now meant finding the lost Onu-Matoran villagers. And I had more than a sneaking suspicion that I'd find something of value to my search in the mines. At the very least, I'd be fulfilling my pledge to try to do something about the Tunnelers.

So instead of saying, _"No, of course not"_ and heading for the hills, I nodded, swallowing hard. "Yeah." That was all I could manage.

Kitar nodded back, looking a little sick himself, and pulled on the lever. It gave a rusty sounding creak as it went, and slowly, the pulley started to move as well as rope slid through it. Upon witnessing the contraption it pulled up, however, I very nearly turned tail and ran for my life. It was a very large, square piece of metal, with railing on all four sides to keep any and all cargo from plummeting. That was OK. What wasn't OK, though, was the fact that the railing on the far side had been broken. Yanked out, really, with some pieces still clinging forlornly to it, like sailors to driftwood.

This helped cement the idea that the Onu-Matoran must have been taken, and that the Tunnelers had them. Although really, what possessed them ALL to go into the mines like that, especially when they knew it was so dangerous? Sometimes I found it hard to believe I'd ever been a Matoran, with the crazy way they acted.

Then again, I'd done crazier things, such as take on Makuta Teridax and Dark Empress Tuyet by myself. And I was somehow still alive, although just how was over my head.

Maybe I was just endowed with a lot of luck. And come to think of it, I did some crazy stuff as a Matoran too, so I guess I really shouldn't have been complaining.

Trying not to gulp, I stepped onto the elevator-thing, grabbing onto the undamaged part of the railing as it swayed underneath me. For one horrible second, I was dead sure I was going to fall. Once it had calmed, I took a deep breath and turned back to Kitar with what I hoped was a winning smile. "Hit the lever again and jump in." I said, and he nodded, still looking a little sick.

With another bunch of creaks, we descended, my mask the only source of light we had. I suddenly found myself wishing I'd taken a lightstone or two off of the signposts on the surface, dim as they were. At least then we'd have had some sort of insurance. We were both silent as the thing kept going down, the only sound being the nervous tapping of Kitar's fingers against the railing. I bit back the urge to snap at him to stop. We were both nervous to the point of near panic, and snapping wasn't going to help our situation any. Again, I forced myself to consider what Tahu and Kopaka would have done in my place.

I had to force back a smile at the mental picture. They'd probably gripe at each other for the sole purpose of filling in the silence, thus alerting the Tunnelers to their presence, and then heroically fight them off and rescue the villagers like true Toa and go home with praise being lavished upon their backs. Yes, I still had some vestiges of hero-worship for them, but not without good reason. After all, they'd saved me more times than I could count and they really WERE good at what they did. When they worked together, I could hardly picture a more powerful force.

_OK,_ I thought, _think "Tahu-and-Kopaka". Except without the arguing part. Think "brave and strong". And, uh, "smart" too, because a bit of brainpower never hurt anybody. Should we meet up with a rabid Tunneler, grab Kitar and run for my life, providing it doesn't just trample us to death first. Mata Nui, I realize I ask you for a LOT of things, but please, please, PLEASE don't let me die down here. I don't think I could handle it. I suppose if I have to die, it might as well be doing hero work, but really--_

The elevator touched the ground suddenly, knocking me both off balance and off of my rather depressing train of thought, for which I was grateful. I took a look around, seeing nothing but walls of dirt in both directions, with mining cart tracks along the ground.

To my relief, there WAS a source of light down here: some sort of dimly glowing blue fungus growing along the edges of the tunnel. It wasn't much, but at least I could see a little bit. And at least I'd be able to tell which direction we were going in and if there was any danger lurking outside the reaches of my mask's circle of light.

I didn't know too much about mining, but I knew enough about the basics to keep myself generally safe when I visited Onu-Koro, back before moving to Metru Nui. Basically, always have a light source, some sort of bludgeoning object in case of Rahi attacks, your shovel / pick / generic mining tools, keep out of the way of the carts, don't cause a cave-in, and don't tick off your rope partner or he just might decide to leave you down in the bowels of the earth for a few days in retaliation.

Apparently that last thing had once happened to an Onu-Matoran. He'd been left down in the lower mines for almost three weeks, and when he was finally rescued, he was completely mad. Being down in the dark with only fungi and Kofo-Jaga for company and food had driven him insane. Needless to say, Turaga Whenua didn't let him anywhere near the mines ever again and began to severely punish any and all who participated in the practice from then on.

I knelt down and examined the floor, putting my hand on what I recognized as footprints. After a moment of inspection, I stood up and pointed to the left. "They went that way."

Kitar peered down the tunnel and grabbed ahold of my leg again. "You sure? It looks dark down there."

I rolled my eyes. "It's dark everywhere except your island. And the footprints go that way, so come on, we should get going. The sooner we find them, the sooner we can leave." To my amusement, the idea of leaving encouraged him, and he squared his jaw, glared down the tunnel and marched off with me in tow.

Ta-Matoran were indeed brave little things, and I was proud to have been counted among them at one point.

As we went though, I used my staff to make marks in the wall, visible in the light of the glowing mushrooms. No telling just how far these tunnels went, and I had no intention whatsoever of getting lost. The thought of wandering around down there for the rest of my life was not an appealing one, to say the least.

X x X

We had been walking for maybe about two hours when there was a rather ominous rumbling coming from all around us.

Up till that point, there was virtually no sign of life in the mines, except the fungi and us. When the rumbling started, I found myself wishing it had STAYED that way.

There was nothing around us that I could see, even extending the circle of light that my mask created. Kitar held onto me as I whipped around, searching for whatever had made the noise. I was fairly sure I knew what it was already, but as usual in these situations, managed to almost convince myself that it was in fact the missing Onu-Matoran, stampeding towards us to thank us and tell us, hey, false alarm, we can all go home now!

Unfortunately for me, I didn't quite manage to delude myself, and so was practically shaking in fear when the rumbling just stopped suddenly. Kitar clung harder to me as I gripped my staff tighter, still searching the tunnel. The dark was beginning to constrict on me again, making it harder to breathe. I backed up a little, instinctually, trying to put my back at the wall and defend myself against my unseen enemy.

Instead of hitting the wall, my back hit a hard, pointy object that snorted hot breath that smelled of dirt and decay all over me.

_Please tell me I didn't just walk right into its face..._ I turned slowly as Kitar began to jabber and pointed over my shoulder. Instead of a Matoran, as I was still trying to convince myself, I was instead met face to face with a very manic, very hungry-looking Tunneler.

Not only that, it was huge. Bigger than it should have been, I was certain, although not by much. A part of me registered dimly that that made sense; being that this tribe of Tunnelers lived in a different part of the world, they'd develop differently from their Northern cousins. It stood to reason that the other species in this Archipelago would be different from the ones I was used to as well.

It leaned forward a bit, sniffing and then releasing another wave of hot breath over me. I gagged a bit from the smell, but didn't dare take my eyes off it.

And then it roared and lunged. Grabbing Kitar by the arm, I ran for my life, the Tunneler missing us by mere inches - I felt the breeze from its dash on my backside as I ran. And of course, the Tunneler chased after us.

I wouldn't realize this until later, but it was doing this on purpose. Chasing me and Kitar, I mean, towards the pack. Maybe it recognized me as a potential threat; I don't know. Either way, I was terrified, and the fact that I had no idea just where I was running to didn't help.

"RUN, RUN, RUN, RUN, _RUN_!" Kitar screamed from his position on my back. "IT'S CATCHING UP!"

That didn't even dignify a response; not that I could have replied, even if I had wanted to. I was using too much of my air running as it was, and at that moment I turned a corner and slammed straight into an abandoned mining cart, knocking myself straight into it. With a creak, it moved forward a bit.

As I was busy rubbing my head and trying to collect my scattered mind, Kitar (who had landed safely on top of me and was at least partly responsible for my newfound headache) was busy peeking out of the cart and promptly let out a shriek. "IT'S HERE!"

The mere sound of this thing coming after us was enough to galvanize me into action. I stood up quickly, almost falling out of the cart in the process, and shoved my staff against the wall. The Tunneler's jaws snapped on empty air as we shot away from it, the cart creaking and protesting at the speed we were going at.

This actually wasn't too much unlike a boat, I thought. All I had to do was keep using my staff to make us keep going, and we'd be fine. We were going faster than the rabid Tunneler back there, anyway, although that wasn't for lack of trying on its part. It continued to howl as it chased after us.

The thing looked TICKED. I would be to if two strange creatures were trespassing in my domain, but I had to remember that this also belonged to the Onu-Matoran. Who I still had to find and rescue.

Nor did I forget that, lurking somewhere in this dark place, was the Tunneler Queen herself, although I had found myself begging Mata Nui several times that day not to make me face her. From what I had been told, Rahi rulers were big enough to scarf a Matoran down as less than a light snack. By Turaga Masa's estimation, the Muaka King MIGHT have to bite my legs off from the mid-shins down to swallow me as whole as possible. That statement only brought a much-unneeded mental picture of a gigantic Muaka doing just that, and I had physically felt sick just imagining it.

Was something of that nature going to happen sometime in the near future, provided I found the Tunneler Queen? _Mata Nui, please let me not find her, PLEASE..._

"Don't throw anything at it!" I told Kitar as he began to aim a rock that had been in the bottom of our makeshift "getaway vehicle" at its head. "Whatever it's hit with, it'll turn into."

"Wouldn't it be a GOOD thing if it turned into a rock and stopped chasing us?" he asked, looking annoyed and still more than a little scared.

I nodded. "Yes, but that's not the exact thing that happens. Its SKIN will become rock, but it'll still be a Tunneler in a Tunneler's shape. It just adapts to the circumstance!"

At that, Kitar gave a groan. "But it'll slow down if it's made of rock--"

Before he could finish, there was an explosion of dirt just behind us as another rabid Tunneler unearthed itself and began to chase us. Like the first, this one was slightly bigger than the Tunnelers back home on Metru Nui, and ALSO like the first, it looked really hungry. Neither of which spelled good tidings for me and Kitar.

Swearing loudly, I shoved Kitar down to the floor of the cart and gave the wall another mighty shove, propelling us out of the way just in time. However, this Tunneler was in a little better shape than the other one was, and remained a few paces behind us as we continued.

By now, I was sweating and panting from the effort of keeping us going. I couldn't keep this up for much longer, and I knew it. Just as I was about to give up and throw the rock at it in the hopes that it really WOULD slow down once its skin was made of quartz, it stopped chasing us and let out an angry-sounding howl.

I stared back after it, confused. Why had it...

Kitar's hand tugging on my arm caught my attention before I could finish the thought. "WHAT, Kitar?!"

"L-l-look!" He pointed ahead of us, and I'm sure my mask paled when I saw what lay in store.

The tracks left the tunnel, and curved out into an abyss of a cave. Thankfully there were lanterns hanging from the tracks, but that didn't help any. There didn't even seem to be a floor; the tracks were built stretching into a seemingly endless pit.

I grabbed onto Kitar tightly and closed my eyes, and then the ride started. First, going down, down, down, so steep I almost thought we were about to fall headfirst into the pit, and then rocketing uphill again, and into a spiral going outwards. Several times we were in danger of falling out, as the cart would tip to the side as we shot along the tracks, although thankfully the only thing we lost was Kitar's rock. And very nearly Kitar himself too, but I managed to grab him and hold him close to me in time.

Before I knew what was happening, we were shooting into another tunnel, again dimly lit by glowing blue mushrooms. "Where are we going?!" I shouted, mostly to myself, but Kitar apparently thought I was asking him.

"Why're ya askin' me?!" he yelled back, clinging to me. I swore that if any of the Toa Nuva found out about this, I'd kill myself or die trying. Heroes do NOT cling to their sidekicks for dear life like little females while on an adventure. I'd never hear the end of it if they found out.

"I toldja I've never been here b'fore!" Kitar continued before I could tell him that I hadn't even been talking to him. "I've got no idea where we--"

He was cut off as the cart struck the end of the tracks and vaulted over the stopper, throwing us into the air. I felt my head hit something hard and yelped as a gust of hot breath washed over me and a large, clawed appendage turned me over onto my back.

The last thing I saw before passing out was a pair of manic red eyes and a mouthful of sharp teeth, and then I was gone.

X x X

**AN: ZOMG, TROUBLE. No, by "and then I was gone", I do NOT mean that he was like eaten or something. My brother thought that that was the case, so just to clarify, TAKANUVA IS NOT DEAD YET.**

**And now to get to writing the other fics while I am still homework-less! Onward!**

**Review, please!**


	6. Intermission

**I'm on spring break (FINALLY!) and have been playing **_**Okami**_** again obsessively for the last two days. God I love that game. It's honestly one of the best I've ever played. Plus, the graphics are nothing short of stunning.**

**Disclaimer: As usual, I am afraid I must admit that I don't own Bionicle. Anyone you don't recognize as canon in this story, however, most likely belongs to me. Everyone else belongs to LEGO Enterprises.**

**Summary: Takanuva's journey to rescue a friend becomes so much more than a mere rescue when he finds that his quest leads him to a chain of islands known as the Nuian Archipelago, where monsters are said to rule and night is near eternal.**

**Chasing the Sun  
By: Saya Moonshadow**

_Title: Entry No. 701_

_Author: NA_

_Date: NA_

_Time: NA_

_Location: solitude_

_It has been so many countless centuries since I began this lonely quest of mine. Since that day I have barely eaten or slept. More than anything, I want to rest. I want to join her in the deep slumber, but that is impossible while my mission is still incomplete._

_I wonder what you would think of me now, my darling._

_The sixth sacrifice is eluding me. I honestly thought I had it right a month ago, but the ceremony failed. It cannot fail again. Perhaps there is none among them good enough for me to make use of._

_This would not surprise me. They are all corrupt and selfish. Spirits know the extent to which I suffered because of the actions of just one of them._

_Being back here again is...bitter. Not even bittersweet. I can take no comfort in the memories this place brings me. Too many reminders of what is now gone. Nothing is eternal, it would seem..._

X x X

"Hey boss, you wan' us to go out an' try ta find youse another one?"

"...hmmm...yes. Yes. Search across the sea if you must. Just bring me the right one this time."

"With all due r'spect, boss, wasn't us that brought in that las' one, ya know. You brought 'im in. Or really, t'was the Ra--"

"I advise you not to finish that statement, my semi-loyal servant. That is, if you wish to continue living and partake in the reward of my plan."

"I meant no 'arm by it, honest, boss! Just sayin' we c'n all make mistakes now n' agin. No need to go thinkin' I'm bein' disr'spectful now."

"...hn..."

"Boss?"

"Get out of my sight this instant. If you are not back here in four days with a suitable candidate, start digging your own grave."

"Y-yes, boss. With yer permission, we'll be leavin' now."

The cloaked one standing at the altar grunted and turned back to the moonlight shining through the glass windows. It threw his otherwise hidden features into a sharp, eerie relief, and his servants were very glad indeed to be allowed to scramble as fast as they could for the exit out of the temple's main altar room and back outside.

Once they were gone, their master allowed a small sigh to escape him, although he quickly hid it. There was no time for that right now. Within hours, the suns would come up, and he would be able to drown himself in work once more, as he had for centuries now. Work brought temporary release.

But there was the matter of the small boat that had been spotted docking at Shinjete. Ordinarily this would not disturb him, but the taller of the two occupants of the boat could only be a Toa. Toa had an annoying habit of destroying the labor fruits of...less than conventional plans, such as his.

They were also troublesome in that it was very difficult to win a battle against one, although there WERE those who were capable of it. The majority of the Dark Hunters, for example.

This was just one minor setback. And besides, he reminded himself, this Toa was certain to try to get to the heart of the Archipelago's problem. Which would lead him nowhere but to the murderous beasts he had transformed the Rahi into. Not even a Toa could survive a rampaging Rahi ruler for long. Much less five of them. Soon to be six.

Let this white and gold Toa try to stop his plan. The plan would succeed regardless. He would have his victory, no matter the price.

It didn't matter that his original powers were gone, he thought grimly. He had new ones, granted to him by his long, long research into the plan he was in the process of carrying out. If need be, he would kill this Toa himself. Hopefully he wouldn't have to bother. If he was fortunate, the Toa would be killed (and most likely eaten) by one of the Rahi.

And within a few days' time, he would have the last ingredient needed for his plan to come to fruition. There was no way he would fail.

X x X

_Title: Continuation_

_Author: NA_

_Date: NA_

_Time: NA_

_Location: see above entry_

_What is the point of having near immortality, of living so long? You watch the world slowly rot away as time passes by, and you are helpless to stop it, despite your best effort. This world is so eroded, I am...almost embarrassed to admit I am one of its residents._

_My sweet, sweet darling...please wait a while longer. I promise I will deliver the justice I promised upon these worthless beasts. Just give me a little more time..._

X x X

**AN: As the chapter title states, this is sort of an intermission from the main story. Since, being the main perspective is all Takanuva's and stuff, you really wouldn't get to know anything about the bad guy that way, now would you? That, and I'm in the mood for something with good ol' fashioned ANGST to it. Hohoho.**

**Review and...stuff...yeah.**


	7. Claustrophobia, Pt 2

**Whoa Nelly. Three updates for three stories in the same week? Something must be wrong with me! No, just that I've pretty much gotten back my muses for writing, and am taking full advantage of them while I still can. Hope there are still people reading this!**

**Oh yeah, please excuse how choppy this seems at some parts. It was about two AM when I finished it, and I wasn****'****t quite up to par or thinking clearly. But I just wanted to get the damn thing posted already. I****'ll fix it up later.  
**

**Disclaimer: As usual, I am afraid I must admit that I don't own **_**Bionicle**_**. Anyone you don't recognize as canon in this story, however, most likely belongs to me. Everyone else belongs to the LEGO Company.**

**Summary: Takanuva's journey to rescue a friend becomes so much more than a mere rescue when he finds that his quest leads him to a chain of islands known as the Nuian Archipelago, where monsters are said to rule and night is near eternal.**

**Chasing the Sun  
By: Saya Moonshadow**

"_The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason."_

* * *

_Day 24 (continuation)_

_Restarting journal transmission._

When I came to, it took me a moment to realize that I really HADN'T come to. I was floating in a sea of dark colors. Blackness swirled in front of me, midnight blue to my left. Forest green to my right, and deep, deep brown beneath me. Dark gray circled my waist like a stream of dimming Hoto bugs. _Why is there no red...?_ I thought. _There are six basic elements..._

And then things became clearer, for a moment.

I heard laughter, distracting me from my thoughts, and when I turned to face it, a blue and green Toa ran past me, towards a white shape. _"You're out!"_ she shouted, embracing it. _"Finally! It took so long, I almost thought you'd stay up there forever!"_

It embraced her back, although I couldn't make out any facial features. Or any other defining characteristics, really. Who was that? Both of them, who were they?

"_You know I have a lot of work to do,"_ the white thing sighed, although it had one arm slung around her waist. _"Divining takes a lot of work. And I had to fix the telescope because some moron messed about with the knobs and screwed all the adjustments up."_

She pouted at it, then smiled again. _"It's OK. But you better have brought me something to make up for missing so many of our meetings! That's only proper!"_

"_W-what?!"_ it stuttered, taking a step back, and she nodded.

They were completely unfamiliar to me, I had to admit, even after wracking my brain the past few minutes while watching them for any semblance of remembrance. No one I knew resembled them in the slightest. And why was I staring at them? This seemed like a private moment; I should get out of here. But I couldn't move. All I could do was watch them.

"_Although,"_ the white shape began, reaching behind itself, _"I DID bring you something. But not as an apology for being so flighty. It's your Toa-Day Ceremony soon, right? I, uh, I made you something for that."_ He sounded almost bashful. Obviously there must have been something between them, or maybe he just had feelings for her. Either way, it made me smile. I'd seen Tahu make something for Gali so many times, and present it to her the same way each time.

The blue and green Toa gasped delightedly as the white thing pulled something out and handed it to her, opening the lid of the object. Immediately, a tune began to play, one I didn't recognize. Dark, haunting, and sad all in one. I'd never heard anything like it in my life before.

"_That's my lullaby,"_ she whispered, fingering the object, which I now recognized as a music box. _"The lullaby that I..."_

"_Yes,"_ the white one replied, and I could almost hear the smile in its voice as it spoke. _"Your Builder used to sing it to you, correct? And you've sung it to me enough times that I memorized the tune...and I thought you might like to hear it come from somewhere besides your own mouth for once. I built it myself."_

She smiled again, although this time it was sly. _"This is what you were so busy with, wasn't it?"_

"_No!"_ it replied, defensively, I thought. I'd heard Tahu get defensive enough times that it was by now easy to spot. _"W-well, yes, partially. It WAS one of my projects, but not the whole focus of my work. But I did devote a great deal of time to making it."_

"_I can see that,"_ she murmured, gazing at it. She closed the lid, and the music stopped. I was...almost grateful for this. While definitely beautiful, the tune was beginning to make me nervous. And I didn't know why, either. Certainly the song was haunting, but it was just music. I'd never reacted to simple music this way before.

"_Do you remember the lyrics?"_ she asked, and the white one nodded.

Lyrics? The song had lyrics? I wasn't so sure I wanted to hear them; just the melody itself was enough to creep me out.

But first off, why was I seeing this? And where the heck was I, anyway? I couldn't tell, all I could see (besides the two in front of me, of course) was that strange mix of dark colors. And not rich colors, either, they looked almost sickly to me. That wasn't the rich, healthy brown of the Po-Matoran that I was used to. I shivered as I looked at it, ignoring the blue-green and white beings in front of me for a moment in favor of inspecting those colors.

It was too much of a reminder of when I'd come across Po-Koro when it was infected by the diseased Koli balls. Hewkii's coloring had been this exact same shade of dark, sickly brown that now swirled beneath around my feet, entwining them...

My head reeled suddenly as a sharp pain came out of nowhere, catching me across my cheek, and I sat up straight, eyes screwed shut in pain.

"OW!"

"Finally! Yore awake!"

Awake...?

Belatedly, I realized that I was apparently no longer standing up. I opened my eyes to meet not those sickly colors or the blue-green Toa and her white friend, but the faces of Kitar and a black Turaga whose name I didn't know.

"What...what happened?" I asked, pressing a hand to my forehead. One heck of a headache was setting in, and I had a feeling it had something to do with the fact that I'd been pitched headfirst out of the stupid mining cart.

Blast it.

"We were captured!" Kitar's voice met my ears, and I winced at the words.

"Indeed," the Turaga sighed before I could say anything. "It seems our old friends the Tunnelers have deemed it better to merely detain us instead of devouring us whole." Catching my eye, he smiled. "But I suppose that's a blessing, hm? It's a pleasure to meet you, Toa Takanuva. My name is Otona, resident Turaga of Iban."

"Nice to meet you." I said, taking the hand he offered and shaking it, "But how do you-?"

He nodded towards Kitar. "Your friend here explained everything while we waited for you to wake up. You must have quite the hard head. Not everyone could just get up after taking such a knock."

I shrugged. "What can I say, I was built to last." Standing, I kept one hand on my forehead and took a look at my surroundings.

A cave. We were in a rock cave, so digging out without tools was obviously not an option. This place was beginning to remind me less and less of Onu-Koro's mines and more and more of the general idea most Matoran had of Karzahni. Dark water dripped down the walls from who knows where, and a large boulder covered what appeared to be the only exit.

I gagged and took a step back from the wall I'd been sitting propped up against. The water smelled rotten, and no doubt it was. Also no doubt my back was covered in the stuff. I'd be hard pressed to get the smell of that rotten water off of me any time soon...

"We're in a bit of a tight spot, as I'm sure you can imagine," Otona said, he and Kitar both watching me swipe at my back with my cloak in an attempt to get the water off of me. "As I'm sure you have noticed, that water is not fit to drink, and we are without supplies or tools of any kind. Nor is it of any help to the quality of the air down here, I'm afraid."

Air! How long did we have till it ran out? Before I could ask this question, one of the many Onu-Matoran gathered around us in the cave spoke.

"There's air comin' from a hole up there, so don't go panicking now." He pointed up, although I couldn't make out the hole he was talking about. The ceiling was almost invisible, it was so high up. He shrugged. "We're good for now. Just wish we had some food."

"How long have you been down here?"

He thought, scratching his mask. "Er...hard to say. Turaga Otona thinks it's been about three or four days, but I dunno."

Three or four days...so I must have been unconscious for a while then. Understandable, being that I had been thrown out of a speeding mining cart head first, but all the same...

"But..." Kitar now spoke up. "Why did you come down here in the first place? Turaga Masa said you guys weren't gonna go into the mines at all!"

Turaga Otona sighed. "That's what I told Masa, and I meant what I said at the time. Unfortunately, circumstances don't always go with what we'd planned, Kitar. If it had been my choice, we would still be in our village right now. But the Tunneler Queen had different ideas." He sounded bitter as he spoke that last sentence.

That's right, he had been friends with her before. How badly must her betrayal have hurt him?

"The Tunnelers came and chased us out," the Onu-Matoran explained. "Like we were dirt-mice or somethin'. Chased us to the mines, then dragged us down in the elevator once Turaga Otona realized what they were tryin' to do, so he couldn't order us all to go back."

And that explained the broken railing of the elevator...

"And then they marched us here." he finished with a huff. "And we've been here ever since. Not too sure just how long ago that was, though."

"Uh-huh..." I nodded. My phobia was starting to creep up on me again...how long would I be forced to be down here, in this crushing dark? This wasn't the way it was supposed to go! I was supposed to come down here, kick butt, and get the Onu-Matoran to safety! Not be taken prisoner without even a decent fight!

A new sound interrupted the conversation, and everyone all looked over at the boulder covering the exit, which had begun to move. As soon as there was enough room, a dark shape slipped in.

As expected, it was a Tunneler. Like the others I had seen, it was slightly bigger than the ones that lived on my own island, although nowhere near as big as the others. Probably still young. But this one's eyes were much less manic, less crazed than the two that had chased Kitar and I through the tunnels, and this surprised me.

_Weird,_ I thought. _It almost looks clever._

And then the biggest surprise came when it opened its mouth and spoke.

"You must be the new prisoners." it said in a surprisingly high, clear voice. "Welcome to the Labyrinth!"

"It...it TALKS..." Kitar whispered behind me, sounding positively horrified. I couldn't say I exactly disagreed with him on that front.

The Tunneler wrinkled its nose at him. "Of course I talk, I'm sentient, aren't I? You Matoran, you don't know a thing about anything, you know?"

"But you're a Rahi!" he protested. "You're not supposed to talk!"

And that's when I noticed its eyes. Not red, but orange. Bright, glowing orange, and looking much too amused for a creature in its current position.

"There are some species of Rahi that can manage it." I said. "And one of those species is the Krahka. Isn't that right?" I asked the Tunneler in front of me, which was suddenly grinning. "You can talk because you're a Krahka."

"Smart, aren't you?" it asked, before transforming into a perfect replica of me, right down to the mask. The only difference was, again, the glowing orange eyes. I blanched as I noticed my staff strapped to its back. I hadn't even noticed it was missing before. Some Toa I made, huh? I had to get it back somehow, but just how I would do that was a mystery.

"You're the first one to notice me, you know? Not even those stupid Tunnelers noticed what I was. Not surprising, considering their current situation, but all the same..."

Turaga Otona now stepped forward, practically quivering in anger. I had to hand it to him, the guy was no coward despite being pretty much powerless. "You have something to do with our imprisonment, do you not?" he asked, voice sharp. "Release us immediately! We have done nothing wrong!"

"Sorry, can't do it." the Krahka replied, sounding bored. "Where would the fun in that be? Chasing you down again would be such a pain, you know? Plus, it's my orders to keep you down here for as long as possible." His eyes swept over me slyly. "You really need to tone down your power signature, you know? I could feel you coming from a mio away. Lucky I was able to prepare for it."

I bristled. Never before had I been told to tone down my power. Usually I was getting yelled at to turn it UP. Nor did I like the condescending tone in the thing's voice. I didn't mind following orders from Turaga Vakama or Turaga Dume, or even Tahu, but coming from the mouth of THIS thing, it was nothing short of maddening.

"Aaaanyway," the Krahka went on, "it was nice meeting you, but I gotta go now. Work still to be done, you know? Only one more island to go before the REAL fun starts."

"Wait a minute!" I shouted, running after him as he turned to leave. He whirled around and met me before I could jump on him, dealing me the smoothest uppercut I'd ever seen (or been privy to, for that matter). I flew back to hit the wall, that awful-smelling rotten water splashing all over me as I landed.

Before I could so much as move, he was upon me, digging one knee into my abdomen and pinning my arms down with hands much stronger than my own. I let out a yelp as sharp claws dug into my wrists. All action around us ceased.

"Get offa him!" Kitar shouted, held back by Otona.

The Krahka's eyes flicked to him, still sly as those of a serpent. "Obviously you mistake yourself as having some semblance of power over me," he sneered. "You have no power, none of you do. Not anymore. This is OUR world now."

Suddenly, he was a Tunneler again, and just in time - two more Tunnelers had just rushed in, manic red eyes blazing. The Krahka barked at them, and the larger of the two's eyes blazed harder as it looked upon me.

I swore I saw a smirk on the Krahka's face as he shoved me towards the two real Tunnelers, and then grabbing Kitar with his tail and depositing him there as well. Another bark. I wished then that I had a Rau or something so I could understand them.

The larger one stood over me, mouth open and dripping with saliva, and I closed my eyes. It was going to bite me in half, I just knew it, and I had nothing to defend myself with. The Krahka had my staff, and my pack was still sitting propped up against the wall. My mask was good for pretty much nothing except blinding things with, and doing so would only tick them off even more. Plus, I was fairly certain they could find their way just fine in the dark, so it would ultimately be pointless and only get me in a LOT more trouble than I could handle.

Instead of being bitten in half, as I'd expected, I felt sharp teeth graze my back through my cloak as it grabbed the material of said item and picked me up by my scruff with it, carrying me like some sort of baby Rahi. Kitar yelped as the smaller of the two did likewise with him.

I caught sight of Turaga Otona's face as we were carried off, and it was not comforting. Despair and horror were stamped on his features, and I can't say I blamed him. My own face probably reflected the same exact thing.

"Where are we going?" I demanded of the Krahka, who was now busy shoving the boulder back into place, covering the entrance to the prison-cave once more. "Where are you taking us?!"

He smirked and pranced up to me, my staff tied to his back still. My eyes snapped to it and then back to him. If only I could grab it without some sort of repercussion! If I thought I could have managed it, I would have, and the Krahka obviously saw that. His eyes teasing, he spoke in a low voice.

"Queenie wants to talk to you, lucky you. She doesn't grant an audience often, you know? Heck, even that crotchety Turaga back there didn't get to talk to her all that much."

I was really starting to get sick of him finishing so many of his sentences with "you know?". I don't know, but it was just grating on my nerves so bad right then that I almost reached for my staff just so I could beat it out of him.

"You'll be lucky if she doesn't eat you. Creature her size has to get pretty hungry, you know?"

And again...

"But I'm pretty sure you're gonna get eaten, so have fun with that!" He turned to leave, tail wagging.

"Wait!" I shouted after him. Kitar whimpered a little to my right, but I paid him no mind. "What's your name?" _Tell me your name so I can hunt you down later,_ I thought savagely. _It's so much easier to track something when you have its name--_

He stopped and then looked over his shoulder, but his grin was now bitter. "Name?" he asked, grin becoming more feral. "Name? Sorry, I'm not important enough to warrant such a luxury!"

And then he was gone, tunneling deep down into the earth and taking my staff with him.

* * *

He didn't have a name, he had said. And he'd looked so bitter when he'd said it. I couldn't imagine not having a name. A name was part of what made you what you were. Even Rahi had private names, Turaga Nokama had told me once, and only a lucky few outside of the packs are privy to knowing them. She herself was such good friends with the Kikanalo Chief back on Metru Nui that she knew his name, but she had kept it a secret.

Against my will, I felt a sudden surge of pity for the Krahka. It didn't stop me from hating him for his part in the mess I was currently in, but I still pitied him. Sure Kitar and I were about to get eaten and possibly brutally maimed by an angry giant Rahi, but at least we had names that would be remembered. He didn't even have that. When he died, there would be nothing for people to remember him by. He would just be a nameless, faceless Rahi.

The Tunnelers carried us for what felt like hours. I began to struggle, feeling my cloak bunching around my throat, restricting my breathing. In response to this, my carrier merely tossed its head, jerking me around and making me choke. Kitar was lucky enough that his was carrying him with its mouth wrapped loosely around his chest. At least he could breathe, although he didn't look too happy - at any given time, all that thing had to do to kill him was snap its jaws shut. By the time we reached our destination, I had nearly blacked out again from lack of air.

Suddenly, I could breathe again as I was thrown to the ground, and I gasped and clutched my throat. Never again would I take air for granted. I made a mental note to bow and scrape a bit to Lewa when I got home.

Kitar's whimper of fear next to me brought me back to reality, and I looked at him questioningly. "What is it?"

Instead of answering, he merely pointed.

Whatever it was that was making him practically gabble like that, it couldn't be good, and I had to literally force myself to follow his finger. We were now in another enormous cave, with more of the glowing blue fungi near the entrance, providing a little light. Even with that, I couldn't see what it was that Kitar was so riled up about, and I powered up my mask.

Behind me, I heard the Tunnelers hiss, and winced a little but to my relief they stayed immobile. I spread the circle forward, taking note of the fact that the Tunnelers shied away from it. They were dark-dwelling creatures, after all, but they were acting almost AFRAID of it.

As my light spread, I felt my fear fading away. Here was Light. Here was Goodness. In the Light, there was no such thing as fear. I was back in my own domain, slightly. I could see again.

It spread to the back of the cave, and I felt my fear return in droves.

That was, by far, the largest Rahi I had ever laid eyes upon that I could think of at that moment. It lay immobile at the back of the cave, its large, dark form taking up over thirty kios all around.

It looked sick. VERY sick, if I were to be the judge of such things. Such a big creature, now just wasting away here in this cave to some kind of disease that I had no name for.

But then its eyes opened, and I saw that the sickness was not just physical. While the Tunnelers we'd met so far (with the exception of the Krahka in his Tunneler form) had all had madness in their eyes, they'd all had some semblance of intelligence in there as well. This one had none whatsoever. Nothing but pure animal madness laid in its eyes, and I groaned at what had been done to such a magnificent creature.

The Tunneler Queen, no longer a Queen but instead a maddened monster who was helping with the genocide of an entire community.

The same pity I'd felt for the nameless Krahka surged up in me again. What had happened to her to make her like this? Kitar and Masa had both described the Rahi rulers as INTELLIGENT, not mad beasts!

She began to climb to her feet, whining and whimpering as she did so. Her limbs looked so atrophied, it was a wonder she even managed to sit up. I grimaced, and Kitar grabbed my arm.

She moved closer, and I saw just how badly wasted away she had become. The hard armor all Tunnelers possessed in their natural forms was rusted and corroded away, revealing the flesh beneath. Even that looked rusted, the organic parts looking strained and weak. Her movements were slow, jerky, painful-looking.

It tore my heart to see her like this...

And that's when I saw it. A hole in her chest, right where the heart should have been. She had no heart? But that made no sense! I was no biologist or scientist, but even I knew that a mammal had to have a heart to survive. Without a heart, she wouldn't be able to pump blood to her body.

And that was another thing. There was no blood, no nothing, surrounding the hole. It was just that, a hole going through her, like it had been burned through, thus sealing away the blood vessels. That was the only thing I could think of to explain the lack of blood, but there wasn't even a burn mark on her chest.

What was going ON here?!

She loomed over us, swaying, mouth dripping with saliva. I moved a bit as one such rope of it came dangerously close to my foot. Mata Nui, even her BREATH was diseased. It smelled even worse than the rotten water in that...prison cave...

Wait. That was it! The rotten water! The Tunnelers had to get their water source from SOMEWHERE, right? What if that source of water was the same as wherever the water in the prison cave had come from? And what if that rotten water were the cause of this atrophy of hers?

But wait, that made no sense either, since none of the others were quite as bad as she...

But I couldn't help but look over my shoulder at the two smaller Tunnelers who were behind us. For the first time, I noticed just how skinny under their armor they seemed. Tunnelers were supposed to fill their armor up completely, fitting like a glove, as the saying goes.

That was another thing that had thrown me onto the Krahka's scent when he was still masquerading as one of these guys, I realized - he had looked healthy and perfectly fit, whereas the others didn't. I KNEW there was something off about him besides his eyes...

I couldn't tell if these two had atrophied as badly as their Queen had, but I hoped for their sakes that they hadn't. How painful must it have been?

On the other hand, if they WERE that badly wasted away, it would mean they weren't totally up to par and we would have a (slightly) better chance of getting out of here alive.

And there was the new question: how to get out? We were surrounded by three possibly big, hungry, angry, CRAZY Tunnelers, and I was weaponless. All I had was my cloak. And my powers.

The Tunneler Queen bent down further, sniffing us. Up close, her breath was bad enough to almost knock me out, and Kitar actually retched. Thankfully, there was nothing in his stomach. All that came up was bile.

While I was attempting to cover Kitar, who was completely helpless by now, I chanced a glance forward, looking between her legs and behind her tail, and almost fell over. A way out! Well, a way back into the mines (or the Labyrinth, as the Krahka had called it), anyway. But anything was better than here.

I had to act quickly. But just thinking about going back out into that deep darkness, where even a shred of light would give my position away, made the fear that pity had replaced come rushing back. Here, I could keep my light on until I died. If I were to grab Kitar and run for that exit like I would probably have to, I wouldn't be able to have light anymore. And from the looks of it, there weren't any of the glowing mushrooms out there, either.

I'd be totally in the dark, with only a terrified Ta-Matoran for company.

The Matoran! They were counting on me!

I had to think of the Onu-Matoran and Turaga Otona, still trapped in that prison cave with the rotten water. They were smart enough not to drink it, but they had been in there without supplies for days. Parched and starving beings will eat or drink anything if it comes down to it. Including diseased water that caused symptoms remarkably similar to atrophy.

I had to get them out of there before too much time passed, and I quickly ruled out any scenarios that excluded me bringing down the Tunnelers in that. I'd have to immobilize them somehow...but how?

There WAS one way, but I'd have to be careful. And I'd need to get the Tunneler Queen alone and trap her to pull it off properly. And there she would need to stay until a) she reconfigured herself as all Tunnelers eventually did when they were "changed", or b) I figured out a way to reverse the transformation.

This would be so much easier if I had my staff with me...

I grabbed Kitar by the arm and stood up. Behind me, the two smaller Tunnelers tensed. Still trying to swallow my fear, I looked up at the Tunneler Queen, who had frozen. I couldn't see her eyes, but I could hear her breathing, shallow and painful.

I took a deep breath, shifting Kitar around onto my back. He grabbed me around the neck, and I was just grateful he understood part of what I was planning. He may have been at least twice as scared as I myself was, but he was still smart. He didn't let his fear get in the way of the goal.

Another deep breath. The Tunneler Queen turned her enormous head to face me, and this time, I could see her eyes again. Mixed in with the madness now was hunger. Raging, roaring hunger.

Before she could lunge at me like I knew she was about to, I dove underneath her, hitting the ground with my shoulder and rolling back to my feet to take off at a sprint for the exit behind her. It was no wonder I hadn't seen it before I had - she'd been lying in front of it when we were dragged in here, and up until then I'd been too busy concentrating on her to notice it.

But none of that mattered now. The Tunneler Queen pitched forward, as I knew she would, and collapsed on top of the smaller two. Excellent! This bought me a good deal of time, and I wasted none of it in running for that exit which had suddenly become the most precious thing in the world to me.

I hesitated for a split second, and almost stopped running as I neared it.

It was so dark - so crushing - I could hear HIS voice again, calling for me to give him the Avohkii--

The roar behind me jolted me back to my senses, and I plunged into the blackness of the exit as the Tunneler Queen hauled herself off of her two dead tribemates and began to chase after us.

For a sick Rahi, she sure could move fast...

* * *

_End journal transmission._

* * *

**AN: There we go, the next chapter. That only took me about two months...sorry. I know I've been bad at updating this year, but look! *points* I'm trying my best, really I am! Just don't kill me D:**

**Also, new character introduced. Every good villain's gotta have minions, right? Technically some of them were introduced LAST chapter, but yeah, here's a PROPER introduction for one of them. Enjoy, because I think I'm gonna have fun with this one.**

**Anyway, please give me a review about what you think. Suggestions and the like are more than welcome, and I'll credit you for any and all that I use.**


	8. Claustrophobia, Pt 3

**...it's been a while, huh? Sorry about that. Other stuff's been taking up my attention, the least of which is not the **_**Pokémon Special**_** manga. Totally trumps the anime by a million points, I'm telling you. Decent storytelling, wonderful art, non-annoying characters...I'd actually read the first volume several years ago, but just recently began reading the rest of it online. Boy am I glad I did.**

**Right, I'm not here to advertise a manga. I'm here to write a story, which...I am doing. Right here and now. Yup.**

**Disclaimer: As usual, I am afraid I must admit that I don't own **_**Bionicle**_**. Anyone you don't recognize as canon in this story, however, most likely belongs to me. Everyone else belongs to the LEGO Company.**

**Summary: Takanuva's journey to rescue a friend becomes so much more than a mere rescue when he finds that his quest leads him to a chain of islands known as the Nuian Archipelago, where monsters are said to rule and night is near eternal.**

**Chasing the Sun  
By: Saya Moonshadow**

"_Dreams are but imaginary worlds we create as a way to escape from what's real, fragile illusions that only temporarily make us feel happy and complete, lies that only show their true side once we're awake."_

* * *

The first thing that hit me when I ran out into the dark tunnels was an overwhelming sadness. I couldn't say where it came from, but it was there. Behind me, the Tunneler Queen raged and roared, still chasing after us, but I pressed on. I had to find a secluded area, one where no other Tunnelers could find us, but how?

I couldn't allow my plan to fail. Too many things were riding on the outcome, not the least of which was my own survival. Selfish, yes, but I had no intention of dying any time soon.

Such sadness still consuming me...all around me...

"_Why are you so sad, Hanaka?"_

"_I am not sad, my Lord..."_

"_Come now, Hanaka, I created you. I know you better than that. What is bothering you?"_

"_**...everything burns..."**_

Everything burns...

Who was Hanaka? And who was that other voice speaking? It was so familiar...

Before I could contemplate further, I smacked straight into a wall and went sprawling. OK...so these tunnels were winding. Not for nothing was this place nicknamed the "Labyrinth", I suppose. If it were a _real_ labyrinth, it would have a center. It would be a maze. This was just...winding. What I could make out of it, anyway. I could hardly see my hand in front of my face.

Before the Tunneler Queen could catch up, I grabbed Kitar and began to run again, keeping one hand on the wall this time so I would be able to tell when something was coming up. Another problem was the fact that I wasn't keeping track of where I was going, but I would worry about that later. For now, I had to concentrate on trapping the Queen.

I wasn't proud of what I was about to do to her. If I'd had my staff, I doubt it would come down to this, but no. That blasted Krahka had stolen it, and I doubted I'd get it back any time soon. So I was stuck with nothing but my mask and my hands. Not a good situation for a Toa of Light.

My hand dipped into the wall suddenly, causing me to trip and fall into it. To my surprise, this wasn't another branching tunnel - it was a little niche, perfect for hiding in. I had just managed to pull my feet in when the Tunneler Queen shot past, still roaring.

Thank Mata Nui she hadn't noticed us...

"What are we gonna do now?" Kitar asked softly as I bent over to catch my breath. "I dunno where we are anymore!"

"Not sure." I answered. "But I have to find a way to trap her."

"Why?"

"...you'll see." I couldn't bring myself to tell him what I was going to do to her. It was hard enough just thinking about it. I just hoped she was strong enough to survive it. "Are there any...actual rooms in here?"

"How should I know?" he answered. "Might be, though...some of the caves are bound to be kinda small, right?" He shifted to peer around at my face. "Why? What are ya planning to do?"

I swallowed uncomfortably. "You'll see. For now, we need to find a small, enclosed area and then lure her over to it somehow."

"I can do that." he said.

My first reaction was shock. Kitar, alone in the dark with these monsters? Unacceptable! I wouldn't allow it! He was small, and unarmed, and inexperienced...

Just like I had been on my first journey through Onu-Koro's mines.

Turaga Vakama had entrusted me to do what was best then, and he had also trusted me enough to know that I would survive. And if HE could do that, why couldn't I as well?

Because Kitar was my friend, and I wasn't a Turaga who was used to sending people on heroic quests to help save the world. If he was killed, Turaga Masa would never forgive me, and neither would that Yuuka girl he was so hung up over. Heck, I wouldn't forgive myself if that were to happen.

I bit my lip, thinking, and Kitar waited patiently, like this didn't matter in the least.

I had no weapons to give him; my pack was still in the cave where the Onu-Matoran were being held. And even if I DID have my pack, all that was in there in the way of weapons was a small knife. Hardly enough to do too much damage to something like one of these Tunnelers. Especially if it was their oversized Queen that caught him.

Ta-Matoran...what was it with them and being so bloody courageous all the time?!

"Alright." I said finally. "But you be careful."

I felt him shake his head and slide off my back to land on the ground. "Will do."

"These caves echo pretty well," I said. "Something about the stone they're made out of..."

"So you'll call for me when you find this 'enclosed space' o' yours?" he asked, sliding past me. Although I still couldn't see him, I could feel his head slipping out into the passage, listening.

Nothing, no sound of the Tunneler Queen or any of her tribe. The silence was making me uneasy.

"Yeah." I said. "I'll yell for you."

"You'll have ta keep yellin' so I can find you," he said dubiously. "Otherwise I'll get lost." The last part of that sentence was unspoken - _"with that thing"_ - but I heard it nonetheless.

"I will."

And then he was gone, his footsteps pattering softly down the tunnel in search of the Queen.

I had to take a few breaths to calm myself - and to keep from yelling for Kitar to get his butt back here - and then stepped out myself. He had gone right, so that was the way I went as well. It was amazing how far he seemed to have already gotten; I could no longer hear his footsteps. Perhaps he had stopped to listen for something?

I had to push the temptation to use my mask down. Kitar's job was to provide the bait; mine was to find the place where I would all but finish her off. So I kept going. I couldn't count how many walls I walked into, but I'm sure it must have been at least fifteen. Either way, they all hurt, and I was rubbing the sore spot on my face before long, keeping one hand to the wall to prevent any other accidents.

Of course, being me, I still managed to hit the wall several more times anyway.

Eventually though, I became aware that the turf under my feet was changing. No longer hard and gravelly, but smoother, almost...slippery. And then there was light.

The proverbial light at the end of the proverbial tunnel! I was SAVED!

When I got to the end, I had to shield my eyes a bit, as by now they were so used to the darkness. Once I regained their use, I gazed around the room I had just found.

Strange...this was almost exactly like the cave in Ga-Wahi that Gali, Tahu, and Kopaka had found just before finding (and fighting) the Rahi Nui. Like that place, it was cold and smooth, and filled with a soft, strange light (which was coming from more of those odd glowing mushrooms growing all over the place). A small pool of water adorned the center, still and unmoving. Also like that place, there were carvings on the walls. Words.

Try as I might, I couldn't figure out what they were supposed to mean. They resembled the Matoran alphabet, but spelled out words in a language that I didn't know. Whatever it was, it sounded old. Then again, I was in an ancient place. Who knew how long it had been here? Perhaps this was some sort of...ancient burial site or something before the Tunnelers moved in. Or maybe it was a shrine TO the Tunnelers?

The pictures next to the words made more sense, and I studied them for perhaps a bit longer than I should have, considering the circumstances. Even then, though, I still couldn't figure out what the message was. What looked vaguely like a Tunneler was bowing and offering something to a...star? A bright dot? Something shiny, anyway. But then I noticed what the Tunneler was offering to that bright thing.

A heart.

It was offering a heart to that bright thing - its OWN heart, I was willing to bet. Did the Tunnelers have a god or something that they worshiped, just as we worshiped the Great Spirits? Onua would have had a field day here.

I tore my eyes away from the carvings. As oddly comforting as this place might have been (probably because of the light, I had to admit), I needed to find a small, dark, secluded cave that could be sealed off.

Deciding to check more of this cave out, I began to feel my way around the darker areas, still resisting the temptation to use my mask. If there was one thing I had learned from Kopaka, it was caution, and one never knew what was lurking out in this strange, dark place. For all I knew, one more tiny spark of light could end up being a beacon to any hidden guard that the cave might have.

And that's when I found it. It was just big enough for a decent-sized Tunneler to squeeze through, and I could feel in the rock around the entrance that it was weak and would collapse easily. Even better, the inside was dark, even with the mushrooms that illuminated the outer shrine-area.

Smiling, I headed back over to the tunnels to call for Kitar. Time for phase 2 of our plan.

"KITAR!" I shouted, my voice echoing.

I waited for his reply; one second...two...three...four...five.

Nothing.

"KITAR?" I tried again.

Still nothing, even after another five seconds. My blood began to run cold. Could he not hear me? Was he dead? Or was he hiding from the thing and lying in wait for the perfect chance to bolt?

I argued with myself for a couple seconds before heading back out into the dark tunnels. I'd found the place needed for my plan, but now I needed to find and rescue my lure. It was stupid and I knew it, but I had to. I couldn't just sit there and wait while he might be dead or injured, just WAITING for me to come and save him...

I hadn't been walking for more than a few minutes, when I heard a loud roar and a shriek that I recognized as Kitar's, and broke into a run in its direction. Fortunately, the roars continued - although the shrieks did not - so I was able to tell which direction to go in. This time, I didn't bother with the darkness. My mask lit my way as I went, and I almost wished it hadn't - old, cracked bones littered the floor, which explained the crunchy, gravelly feeling I'd gotten from it before.

This place was disgusting, and I wanted OUT.

"And where are YOU going?" a voice asked, and I stopped dead as the Krahka materialized before my eyes. Once again he had taken my shape, and I dearly hoped that the annoyance I got upon seeing his - MY - smirk didn't count for other people seeing it either.

"Get out of my way," I snapped. "And while you're at it, gimme back my staff, you thief!"

"Sorry, but I like that thing," he sniffed, tossing his head. "And anyway, you won't need it where you're going. By the way, how DID you escape the Queen? And if you escaped, why are you going back?" His orange eyes searched me slyly, and his smirk widened. "Oh, missing something, are we? Or should I say someONE?" He laughed. "Idiot. You'll find that in the wild, courage is considered foolish. It's every man for himself out there, you know?"

"This isn't the wild," I said. "This mine belongs to the people of Iban."

"It belonged to the Tunnelers first, you fool," he snapped back. "They merely allowed the Matoran to share it with them, provided certain treaties were made." He smiled.

"Let me guess," I growled. "You violated those treaties, didn't you?"

"Only slightly," the Krahka replied. "By the time their dear queen 'fell ill'--" here he made quotation marks with his fingers, "--the Tunnelers were so mistrustful of the Matoran that they were willing to believe anything. I merely helped things along, namely by adding a few, ah, extra ways for the noxious pools up above in the swamps to seep down here. It was all very easy, really. Too bad these idiots have no concept of unity, or they mightn't be in this predicament, you know?"

I swore, if I had to hear him say "you know?" one more bloody time, I was going to punch that bastard in the face.

"But you would have found another way to stir things up."

"Of course," he laughed. "It's my job. I'm actually surprised no one noticed an addition to either's camp at times though, you know? After all, suddenly there'd just be another Tunneler or another Matoran, but nobody could name that mystery person who was causing all the trouble." He looked positively gleeful.

It was official. I hated the Krahka race with a passion.

I lunged at him, but he vanished again, taking the shape of a small Rahi mole and burying underground with one last laugh.

After a moment of glaring at the space where he'd disappeared, I set off again. He'd distracted me long enough, but I had a village and a Ta-Matoran to save. Getting my staff back from that thieving Rahi could wait for a while longer.

I hadn't been running for long when there was another roar, only much, much, MUCH closer to me than I'd been expecting. It sounded like it was just around the corner...

Someone shrieked, and then Kitar flew around said corner with the Tunneler Queen skidding after him and sliding into the wall. This slowed her only momentarily, and then she was up and coming after him again in a frenzy.

"TAKANUVA!" he howled, dashing over to me. "I FOUND 'ER!"

"Yeah, great job!" I growled as I snatched him up and began to ran with him scrambling over to my back. "She was just about to swallow you whole!"

He didn't answer, and I said nothing else, focusing all my breath onto keeping enough air circulating through me to keep up a fast enough pace. This time, I ran with confidence, using my mask to light the tunnels as I made my way back towards the shrine-room - and also to lure the Tunneler Queen to me. So far, it was working perfectly. Wonderful.

She was several meters behind us when we made it, and the first thing I did was run with Kitar behind a pile of discarded rocks and order him to stay there. Only when the Tunneler Queen herself burst in, roaring fit to burst and the hole in her chest even more pronounced now that I could see it properly, running towards us. He ducked down, and I ran to the side room that I'd found before.

She almost got stuck in the doorway, which I hadn't predicted, but then with a shake and a rumble, she was free and coming after me again. I waited until she was almost upon me, and she reared up, still roaring. Saliva flew from her jaws, raining down all around - and on - me.

And in the split second before her jaws crashed down on top of me, I lifted my hands and fired.

My beam of light wasn't as concentrated as it would have been if I'd had my staff, but it was good enough - not to mention it was practically solid light.

Toa of Light though I may be, I still had to turn away when she became those light particles, otherwise the glare would have blinded me. To my surprise, she didn't scream, although I suppose she couldn't have - her new form most likely didn't have vocal cords. For then, though, I ran for the exit before too much of her could escape to the outside chamber, and hit the doorway with another beam of light.

It collapsed, and she was trapped inside, no longer solid but now literally made of my Light.

* * *

"Takanuva?"

I looked up at the sound of Kitar's voice from where I'd sunk to my knees, just outside of the caved wall. He looked at me, concerned and worried, which...I guess he had a right to be. I'd almost died, after all, and he'd just seen me literally turn a solid, living being into a different form of matter entirely. She wasn't even solid anymore...but what she was now, I couldn't say. Gas, liquid, solid, plasma, just what had I put her through?!

What if she didn't survive the transition, and I'd just put her through a horrible death?

No...no, that couldn't be right...my powers weren't the kind that killed. I wasn't like Makuta Teridax; I wasn't a murderer. And this was the only way to stop her. As much as I hated to admit it, told myself there HAD to have been other ways, I knew it wasn't true. That WAS the only way.

Right then, I hated the Krahka more than ever for taking my staff. If he hadn't, then I would have been able to defeat her without turning her into something less than alive.

Kitar's hand on my shoulder shook me out of these thoughts. "She'll reform in a coupla days," he said reassuringly. "They always do."

I tried to smile, but couldn't.

"And," he added, "with her outta commission, the others'll go out too. Their life force's connected to hers."

Dear Spirits. If I'd just killed the Queen, then I had almost doomed her entire tribe as well. An entire tribe of innocent Rahi who'd been tricked by that conniving bastard of a Krahka.

And that made me think. Was this an isolated incident, orchestrated by that Krahka for some sort of vengeance? No, it couldn't have been. By himself, there was no way he was capable of putting an entire five islands out of commission. There had to be other, more powerful beings at work here as well. He was just a minion, of that I was certain. The way he'd said the Queen had "fallen ill" was another tip-off. The Krahka race only have certain powers, but can copy elemental abilities. They can't copy mask powers. And I was fairly sure there was no element that would allow someone to do what had been done to the Tunneler Queen. Whoever and whatever had taken her heart and still allowed her to live without it was much more powerful than a wayward Krahka.

"Come on." Kitar said, pulling me out of my thoughts once again. "Let's go find Turaga Otona and the others, an' get 'em outta here."

* * *

It turned out we'd been down there for a full four days, having taken us one of those to find our way back out of the tunnels and into the Queen's chamber, then back to the place where the Tunnelers were holding the Onu-Matoran. I had wanted to examine the shrine-room a bit more, but found that while the Queen was still in there, trapped as a being of light, I couldn't. It didn't seem right, somehow. And I was starting to get claustrophobic once again.

I guess that was one thing to be said for a rampaging monster - it had made me totally forget about my fear of the dark, enclosed spaces in favor of being afraid of her instead. At some point I swore I'd get rid of my achluophobia. Someday.

The next day was spent helping the villagers get back on their feet after the Tunnelers' attacks, and though everyone was on edge, there was no sign of any of the Rahi the entire time. It was as if they had simply vanished.

"They'll be back," Turaga Otona sighed. "Once their queen is back to normal, they should be as well."

I frowned, glancing at the floor of his hut. "But where are they?"

"Who knows?" he shrugged. "The Tunneler Queen, though once a friend of mine, did not impart all of her tribe's secrets to me, nor did I expect her to."

I left it at that. For now, there were other things to be concerned with, namely where that Krahka had gone with my staff. And getting back to Shinjete and reporting back to Turaga Masa that we had accomplished our mission.

It was hard work. Even though I smiled and laughed along with the relieved-to-be-alive villagers, I couldn't help but pity the poor, decaying Tunneler Queen and hate what I'd been forced to do to her. That creature hadn't been evil. Crazed and driven mad with SOMETHING, perhaps, but not evil. I could name over a dozen beings who deserved it more than she had.

What they're going to do about the rotten water, though, is anyone's guess. Without the Tunneler's help, they have no way of knowing how many areas have been tainted.

"We'll survive for now," Otona said. "There are water reservoirs elsewhere on the island in case our supply down here is cut off for whatever reason, so we can at least manage until things get back to normal."

And then he gave me a letter to give to Masa, with instructions that if I were to open it, he'd murder me in my sleep. It is for Masa's eyes only, he explained when I gave him a weird look.

But...I can't stop thinking about the words I'd heard in the tunnel, and about the strange carving in the shrine-room. Who was Hanaka? What did that carving mean? The Tunneler depicted had been giving its heart away. Is that in any way related to what had happened to the Tunneler Queen?

Trying though I am, no theory comes to mind. No theory that makes sense, anyway.

Tomorrow we depart again for Shinjete. One of the Onu-Matoran - the same one who I'd spoken with in the holding-cave, in fact - had rescued my pack for me, which is why I am now able to write in my journal and record everything that has happened in the past five days. Now, though, I'm going to go to sleep. Sailing to be done in the morning.

Good. The sooner I get out of here, the better.

* * *

**AN: Hm, not as long as last chapter, but the point got across.**

**No, the description of Takanuva's battle with the Tunneler Queen isn't very detailed. The reason for this is because he's ashamed of himself - he doesn't know what he's just put her through, and wanted to get that part of his narrative over with as soon as possible. That wasn't just me being lazy.**

**Also, some of you pointed out that Takanuva has those light lasers of his. Yes, I DID remember that - those were actually the plan he was formulating back when he first went into the tunnels. Get her into a small room, turn her into light, and get out before her essence escaped and scattered too much for her to piece herself back together again. The staff definitely would have helped, though.**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. This fic is a little challenging, as I'm not used to writing epic adventure-genre multichapter fics in first-person. Still, I'm pleased with the overall result.**

**Please review and tell me what you think!**


	9. Mail Call

**More letters, because Takanuva needs some love from back home. Also to let you all know what's going on with the guys on Metru Nui. Yup.**

**Disclaimer: As usual, I am afraid I must admit that I don't own **_**Bionicle**_**. Anyone you don't recognize as canon in this story, however, most likely belongs to me. Everyone else belongs to the LEGO Company.**

**Summary: Takanuva's journey to rescue a friend becomes so much more than a mere rescue when he finds that his quest leads him to a chain of islands known as the Nuian Archipelago, where monsters are said to rule and night is near eternal.**

**Chasing the Sun  
By: Saya Moonshadow**

Toa Jaller Mahri  
Metru Nui, Ta-Metru  
The Great Furnace, Level 3, Room 36

_Jaller, it's me again. You know...Takanuva. Yeah._

_Hopefully this letter gets to you alright, I don't know how reliable that mail guy is, but he assures me that all of everything he delivers gets to its destination in a timely manner. Sure hope so. For now, I'm gonna call him "Postino", and hopefully he won't find out and decide to murder me._

_Sorry I can't send another journal just yet, Jaller. The second one hasn't QUITE been all filled up, and I want to get the most out of those things. I do have a limited supply, after all. Not to mention I need new pens..._

_But um yes! Listen, I forgot to ask last time, but do you and the Mahri still have your powers? The Toa Nuva except for Gali have lost them, so I just want to make sure that it's just them and not you guys too. Because that would be bad. Very bad. In fact, it would mean that Metru Nui is now effectively almost unprotected if all we have is one Water Toa with her powers._

_...nice address you put on your letter, by the way. Postino says you (and anyone else who wants to write a travelin' Toa, hint hint) can just direct your letters to him and he'll make sure I get them, alright?_

_Anyway, hopefully this gets to you soon, and I'll see you...whenever. Yeah._

_--Takanuva_

* * *

Toa Takanuva -- Postino the Mail Matoran  
Kaia Nui  
...the Kaia Nui mail center?

_Taka,_

_Wow, dark much? What's happened to you, you sound depressed, Taka. Like, Kopaka-esque depressed, which doesn't suit you. Cheer up, you ARE the Toa of Light, after all._

_Before I get into all the other stuff, let me just say that I can't believe you took on an entire tribe of Tunnelers BY YOURSELF. Um, well, I guess you had that Kitar guy with you, but you did most of the work, right? Shouldn't that make you proud instead of being depressed? Look, so you had to do something bad to that Tunneler Queen of yours to stop her, but no matter what, you saved an entire tribe of Matoran in the process. And look at it this way - if she DOES die, you've put her out of her misery. From what you described, it sounded like she was suffering._

_Turaga Vakama says he'll look up reasons why her heart was gone, by the way. He says it'd be EASIER to do if he still had his BOOK OF LEGENDS with him, but again says to remind you to take care of it and if there's so much as a crease in one of the pages that wasn't there before he'll eat your soul._

_Alright, onto other things._

_Yeah, the Mahri don't have powers. Nor do the Nuva except for Tahu, whose powers apparently came back at about the same time Gali's and Hahli's left. I'm lucky enough to still have mine, but for how long? Tahu and I can't keep the city safe by ourselves forever. (All mine did was weaken for a bit before going back to normal, by the way.)_

_Which is all the more reason for you to get to the bottom of whatever's happening over on that Archipelago of yours and take care of business._

_Also, enclosed in this package are some letters to you from the rest of the Nuva. Soon as I told them you were fishing for compliments, they all got their pens out and started writing. And I'm sending you some new pens and a couple blank journals just in case your current supply decides to run out._

_Good luck, but remember to be careful. If I can, I'll join you out there, but things are starting to get kinda bad over here, and Turaga Dume needs all the support he can get._

_Hoping you come back in one piece,_

_--Jaller_

* * *

_Takanuva,_

_I'm going to kill you as soon as I see you next. Do you have ANY IDEA HOW WORRIED WE'VE BEEN? You just LEFT, with no note, no explanation, NO NOTHING! You could've been killed, and now I hear about how you've apparently taken an ENTIRE tribe of outsize and mentally unstable Tunnelers on by YOURSELF?!_

_You're dead. You are so dead. If the Tunnelers don't kill you, I will._

_So help me, Takanuva, if you don't make it out of there alive, I'll kick your ass._

_I mean it. So you better survive out there._

_--Tahu_

* * *

_Takanuva,_

_What Tahu said._

_--Kopaka_

* * *

_Taka,_

_Tunnelers, man? TUNNELERS? You took on all those Tunnelers by yourself?! And LIVED?!_

_It's official, you are hereby dubbed "Super Toa", and I bow down to you. Yes, envision me bowing to you. That's right. Use your imagination. Since you're not here to bow to, I am currently bowing to this paper, and it's getting me some weird looks, but whatever. Hopefully the sentiment stays the same._

_Just get your staff back and you'll be all set. Points have been docked for losing it, by the way._

_If I had my powers, I'd totally head right on down there and kick butt with you. But alas! I am powerless to do anything except sit here and sulk while Tahu goes out and has all the fun all by himself. Harrumph._

_But yeah, man, be careful, alright? We lost ya once, and we don't wanna have that happen again._

_--Pohatu_

* * *

_Taka,_

_What's up with snitching on me to the Ice King, huh?! It's friggin' hard to write this cuz he broke my arm thanks to YOU and YOUR BIG MOUTH. I am smacking you for this when you come back. Hard. And for leaving us all hanging like that, can't forget about that detail..._

_Oh frag the paper's all crumpled now! Thanks a lot, Taka. Thanks a whole lot._

_And now..._

_I AM JEALOUS, I AM VERY VERY VERY JEALOUS BECAUSE YOU GET TO HAVE ALL THE FUN AND I DON'T. WHAT IS UP WITH THAT, HUH? Not that I wanna be chased around by Tunnelers, but this adventure thing of yours sounds like a BLAST! I'd give anything to be on it with ya, but I CAN'T, because SOMEBODY snitched on me to SOMEONE ELSE, and that someone else BROKE MY ARM._

_And then he has the gall to tell me I'm useless now! Well gee whiz, Kopaka, I wouldn't be useless if you HADN'T BROKEN MY ARM!!!!_

_I'll just shut up now, OK?_

_Stay alive and keep sending us those journals!_

_--Lewa_

* * *

_Taka,_

_...that is some adventure you're having over there. I must admit that I'm a little jealous. Not only that, but the history of that island sounds incredible. I'd give anything just to see it. Maybe someday when we're all back to normal, eh?_

_Keep up the good work, though. And don't worry about the Tunneler Queen, those Rahi are some of the sturdiest you're likely to meet. She'll pull through and you'll be forced to chase her down again soon enough, you'll see._

_Just be careful. And if you need any questions answered, I've got an entire underground labyrinth of Archives to research in. Who knows, maybe we'll find SOMETHING down there...for now, I'll just look for anything pertaining to this Archipelago you're on, alright? If I find anything, I'll send it to you._

_Also, I'm researching the Krahka race to see if I can't find anything on that friend of yours. So far the only thing I've found are references to Turaga Onewa's Krahka and rumors of supposed sightings of others of the species on various islands, but yeah. I'm trying._

_Best wishes,_

_--Onua_

* * *

_Taka,_

_No, I'm not going to yell at you, although I know Tahu and Kopaka both basically threatened your life if you don't make it back here alive. Smart, that. "If you die, I'll kill you!" ...nice one, Tahu._

_Anyway, how are you? You sounded really down in your last journal entry. Listen, you did the best you could. And that was the only choice you could have made; it was either that or she would've eaten both you and your friend. And probably all those other Matoran too._

_This Krahka guy sounds dangerous though, be careful. And he's got your staff...again, I stress that you need to be careful. We all know you're not the greatest fighter to begin with (sorry), but without that staff you're a little...uh, yeah. Onua's looking stuff up for you, by the way. Just letting you know in case he forgot to tell you._

_If only I still had my powers - I could go over and help purify the water for those Onu-Matoran..._

_Anyway, enough of my rambling. Jaller assures us that this mail guy of yours will get these letters to you and yours to us with no problem, so I guess all we can do is wait for the next one to come._

_Good luck, and keep believing in yourself!_

_--Gali_

* * *

_Takua,_

_This is Kai._

_AND YOU OWE ME A NEW BOAT FOR THE ONE YOU __STOLE__ FROM ME!_

_That's 100 widgets, so as soon as you get back, I expect a full payment. Got me? Good to hear the one you stole is working out, in any case._

_--Kai_

* * *

_Total package weight: 6 lbs._

_Total fee for package: 25 widgets_

_Fee to be paid by: Toa Takanuva of Metru Nui_

* * *

...I hate you, Jaller.

* * *

**AN: Jaller gets his revenge for Taka taking off like that by forcing him to pay the mail fees. What a jerk.**

**Next chapter (a REAL chapter, haha) should be coming soon, but I make no promises. Finals are coming up in all of my classes, not to mention I have a concert to perform in next weekend, so I'm going to be a LITTLE busy. I'll do my best to keep writing though.**

**Review, please!**


	10. Flicker

**Er, um, hi? Yeah, we're back with another exciting installment of **_**Chasing the Sun**_**! So read on! Yeah.**

**Disclaimer: As usual, I am afraid I must admit that I don't own **_**Bionicle**_**. Anyone you don't recognize as canon in this story, however, most likely belongs to me. Everyone else belongs to the LEGO Company.**

**Summary: Takanuva's journey to rescue a friend becomes so much more than a mere rescue when he finds that his quest leads him to a chain of islands known as the Nuian Archipelago, where monsters are said to rule and night is near eternal.**

**Chasing the Sun  
By: Saya Moonshadow**

"_Nightmares, on the other hand, show us what's deep and true in our core, no matter how apparently hidden to others or even to ourselves. They appear cruel but are the best, sincere way for our subconscious to communicate with us."_

* * *

_Day 25_

So thus concludes my...wonderful description of my and Kitar's adventures through Iban's equally wonderful mines. Dark, dank, and terrifying. With giant, slavering monsters running the place. Ick. Never again. Ever. More than anything, I was ready to go home.

Except for a couple of facts: one, I had yet to rescue Nixie, or even find any leads concerning her whereabouts. Two, despite that fact, I could hardly just leave the Archipelago in this state, no matter what my main objective actually was. And three, I _kind of_ didn't want to leave just yet. There were too many mysteries here, too many things to be discovered, especially after I'd seen that carving in the wall of the cave in Iban's mines. Just what did it all mean?

So, instead of leaving, I resolved to find out at any cost. Along with saving the islands, of course. And finding Nixie and the other reported missing Matoran.

When we finally arrived back on Shinjete, Turaga Masa and the other Ta-Matoran were there on the shore, waiting to greet us. It lifted my spirits, seeing so many people that happy to have me back, and I allowed Masa to drag me and Kitar to his hut without too much of a fuss as a result, though he sent Kitar off to go check on his own things after a moment. Along the way, I managed to hand him Otona's letter, although he didn't open it until we were back in the privacy of his hut.

Once he had read it, his eyes shut, and he massaged his forehead and sighed. "So I see you ran afoul of the Tunnelers, Toa Takanuva."

"Um, yes." I replied. Hadn't I told him this already on the way here?

"And you lost your staff."

"Yes?"

"Which means you are currently weaponless, correct?"

"...yes."

Thank you for reminding me, sir, as if I hadn't been doing exactly that for the last thirty-six hours myself.

He set the letter carefully down on his desk, then went to a cabinet that I hadn't noticed before, bringing his staff around. I hadn't noticed this before, but hanging from the curled top of it were a set of keys. Carefully, he extracted one from its perch and inserted it into the cabinet's keyhole. With a click, it opened, and revealed inside was what could only be described as a miniature armory.

Daggers, swords, a broken sickle, a couple launchers, blades of all kinds, a large bow-and-arrow set, complete with an ornate quiver made of some type of shiny, reflective metal and sporting a tough leather strap. Though I was looking at the sickle, he selected the bow and quiver, then shut and re-locked the cabinet and replaced the key back onto his staff.

"This should be a suitable replacement for now," he said. "How good of a marksman are you?"

Truthfully I was proficient - a lifetime of slinging disks around will do that to you. "Good enough," I replied, reaching for it. When he handed it to me, I saw that, despite its appearance of being made from heavy wood, it was actually quite light, and probably bent easily as well. A flatbow, to be precise, though my knowledge of bows is, admittedly, limited. Though, the wood seemed of especially good quality. "What kind of wood is this?" I asked, fingering it. It didn't smell familiar either.

"It comes from a rare tree on the island of Zelo, home to the Le tribe and the Kavinika." Masa replied, watching the bow with an almost kind look in his eyes. He pointed to the wall, or more specifically, to a copper Hau hanging on said wall. "Go ahead, try it out. Aim for the mask."

I slung the quiver over my back, then selected an arrow. These were fletched with what I recognized as Gukko feathers, although I hadn't seen any Gukkos around here yet. Maybe they were imported from Kaia Nui? Heck, I didn't know, but they were good quality feathers. Good quality all around in the set, really.

Stringing the bow was harder. I hadn't realized just how strong the wood actually was, though it bent nicely without me being worried it would snap, and I willed my arms not to shake. A lifetime of slinging disks around also made me completely not used to such an old-fashioned weapon, it seemed. But still I did my best to aim at the copper Hau, as Masa had told me to, and fired.

The arrow bounced off the forehead of the mask, denting it and sending a small spark into the air.

Masa darted forward to retrieve the arrow, checking the head. "Hm, not a scratch! Practically invulnerable, these things are." He looked up at me, still smiling. "I'm afraid the bow may be a little small for you, as you are rather taller than the maker was, but it should work out just fine. How did it feel?"

I smiled as well, hefting the bow over my shoulder with the quiver. "It felt just fine. And yeah it's a little small, but nothing I can't work around. The only problem will be running out of arrows. Are you sure I can't just use that sickle in there?"

Masa laughed. "I'm afraid not. That was my Toa tool back in the day, and it's no longer in the best working order. The shaft broke long ago, and the metal is rusted beyond repair. Though it would probably be much easier for you to use, being closer to your actual weapon, would it not?"

I shrugged. "Doesn't really matter. I'll take what I can get for now." Especially since this flatbow seemed to be really important to him for some reason, though I didn't ask why. If he wanted to tell me, then he would. "So, um, is there anything I can do right now? Any other islands you want me to save?"

That drew another laugh out of him, and it made him look younger. For a split second I was seeing the Toa Masa, not the Turaga, and it made me want to laugh as well. Despite what I knew, it was still hard to believe that the Turaga had all once been Toa, particularly the ancient ones like Dume. Not when there were maniacs like Toa Helryx still running around. "Technically yes, but that can wait. For now, you should go practice with that bow. Over by the lava flows there is a special area set up for target practice. Go find Kitar, I am sure he'd be delighted to show it to you."

And so that's what I did, after thanking Masa again for loaning me the bow and arrows one more.

"Alright," Kitar said, pointing at a crude stick-made Matoran with a bulls-eye in place of a mask, "the point-a this game is ta hit the center dot, like this." He tossed a rock, and it hit one of the outer circles. I laughed, and he shrugged. "Or somethin' like that, I dunno. Anyway, you get it, right?"

"Mhm." I said. "Yup. Got it."

Of course, it was harder than it looked. Try as I might, I couldn't seem to hit the center. I hit the white ring right outside it almost every time, except for one shot where I sneezed and the arrow flew clean over the target and into the lava flow behind it. Bad luck! I couldn't go losing arrows already! Sure there was a good supply in the quiver, which had obviously been made for a Toa, but I'd only just gotten them. Plus, I had a feeling Masa wouldn't appreciate me losing these things in such a way. Now, if they were to get stuck in the back of a certain annoying Krahka, on the other hand...

I pushed that thought out of my head. I'd deal with that bastard when the time came. For now, I had to keep practicing with these.

I imagined the Krahka's face instead of the bulls-eye, and let another arrow fly.

It hit the red dot in the center with so much force that the enter figure toppled right over!

Well, that was an interesting way to aim! I'd have to make sure to do it again. Preferably the next time I had a giant, rabid beast after me. Which was certain to happen again, as I'd agreed to help these guys out as much as possible, and they were almost certain to ask me to go help out some of the other islands. Me and my helpfulness...and honestly, whose bright idea was it to even CREATE those things?! They were WAY bigger than should have been allowed!

And I had to admit that part of me was glad Masa hadn't asked for any actual details on my trip down into the mines. Putting them on paper was bad enough, I wasn't sure I'd be able to recount them in person just yet. Despite the fact that I was working "for the greater good", it made me feel sick to remember what I had been forced to do to the Tunneler Queen. And if she died, her entire tribe would go with her, as Kitar had told me that their life force was connected to hers.

Thankfully I wouldn't have to worry about a repeat of that with whichever creatures I faced after this. No, now I had these spiffy new arrows to take them down with! But not kill. No killing, unless in self-defense, and these Rahi were obviously connected very deeply to the entire Archipelago. I'd have to be careful. Maybe it would be OK to put one or two regular ones out of their misery, but not the rulers. Those had to stay, despite being too big to be allowed, and rabid on top of that.

"So, any luck on getting through to your friend yet?" I asked Kitar when we sat down for a break.

Immediately, I regretted saying anything, as his smile disappeared and he became as downcast as the shadow that still hovered above the other islands. "No," he muttered, looking at his hands. "Nothin' yet. Yuuka's still trapped in there with those things. She an' everyone else could be dead by now."

"Could be," I said lightly, "but probably not. You'd be surprised at how sturdy you Matoran actually are. I've seen some pretty amazing feats out of you guys before."

"But that's outta warriors, right?" he argued. "Yuuka's not a warrior! She's a fisher-girl. The closest thing she's got to a weapon's a fishin' hook." He snorted.

I was quiet for a minute before saying, "You must not have very much faith in her then if you think she would've gotten killed so quickly."

As I'd expected, Kitar whirled on me, sputtering and eyes burning angrily. "I never said that!"

"Yes you did," I countered. "If you respect her so much, then you should at least give her the benefit of the doubt. She's smart, right?" He nodded. "Well then, I'm sure she knows enough to stay out of the water while it's dangerous. They're probably all just fishing off the docks and not in boats anymore; the Ga-Matoran where I live do that when the water's dangerous. It's no big deal."

All this talk of Ga-Matoran was making me think of Nixie again. She was a smart girl, but she was just one little Matoran, unlike Kitar's Yuuka, who was trapped with the rest of her tribe. But I knew Nixie. She was intelligent and had a lot more common sense than almost anyone else I knew. If there was anyone who could figure out a way to stay safe in a crisis, it was her.

And...I had to admit that it would do me no good right now to panic about her, though Mata Nui knew I wanted to. I had to be calm and in control. She and everyone in this Archipelago depended on it.

Kitar grunted, jerking me out of my thoughts of Nixie. Before he could speak, though, the sky went dark.

All activity around us ceased as the darkness rolled forward, but then chaos set in. Before I had the chance to leap up, already aiming my bow and arrow at, well, nothing, screams and yells were coming from the village just beyond the training area. Already I could hear Masa's voice shouting for order.

Grabbing Kitar's hand as he began to yell too, I ran for the village, searching for Masa, lighting the way with my mask. But then, the dark flickered - and was gone, just like that.

I blinked, grinding to a halt and and letting my mask's glow fade. The sun was shining as brightly as it had been before the dark blanket had dropped, as if nothing had ever happened. In fact, if it hadn't been for the mass panic that had set in, you never would have thought anything had happened at all!

"MASA!" I shouted, taking off again with Kitar in my wake. "MASA!"

I found him in front of his hut with a bunch of Matoran at his feet as he tried to get them to get back up. "The dark is gone, you ninnies!" he snapped, though his mask was just as pale as any of theirs. "There is nothing to be afraid of!"

As soon as he spotted me, however, his eyes grew sharp, and he beckoned us over. We managed to battle our way through the throng of panicking Matoran and back into his hut, and once we were inside, Masa slammed the door shut, then sighed and slid down to the floor, clutching his head in one hand and his staff in the other.

"T'raga?" Kitar ventured after a moment, but Masa didn't look up.

"Forgive me," he said finally. "That little thing just now was...rather unexpected."

"I'll say," I frowned, leaning on the wall next to him. "Just what was that all about?"

"I wouldn't know." he replied, still not opening his eyes. "But we'd hoped that after the shadow lifted before, it would not come back."

"Does this mean it's gonna keep coming?" Kitar asked. To my surprise, he didn't sound afraid. "We got through it last time, Turaga, we can do it again! Right?"

Masa snorted. "Did you not see the panicked crowd out there, Kitar? Yes we got through it before, but there is no guarantee that we will again. And quite frankly, they are all terrified. _I_ am terrified. Do you remember what happened the last time the shadow came?"

Kitar flinched. "That was when the Muaka started goin' crazy," he muttered, and Masa nodded. "And carried off poor Indal along with it," he finished. "If the shadow comes back to stay, who knows how many they'll carry off!"

Finally he opened his eyes, and turned to me. "I'm terribly sorry to ask you this, Toa, but this has gone on long enough. We need to get down to the bottom of it. Would you be willing to go search for clues on any of the other islands for us? I would go myself, but you understand I must remain here..."

"To help the Matoran, I know." I replied. Though I had been afraid he'd ask me to go to the other islands, by now I had realized that it was inevitable. This kind of problem didn't fix itself, and the way things were going, it looked like it wouldn't be too long until Shinjete was just as dark and troubled as the rest of the Nuian Archipelago. "I'll go."

And...I admit I've always been a sucker for a grateful face. Right now was no exception. The elation on Masa's face was incredible. At that moment, I fully understood the enormity of a Turaga's position. They were leaders, assigned to protect their people, but couldn't confront the worst of the problems. No, that job was left to the Toa, which this chain of islands currently lacked. Being unable to go venture out to help his people must have killed him. "Where should I go first?"

After another half hour or so of debating with Kitar about it, Masa eventually decided that I should head to Yazoo, the home of the Ko tribe, next.

Wonderful. For the next couple of days, I'd be freezing my rear end off, tracking down Ice Bats in blizzards and total darkness.

Must not complain, must not complain, must not complain...

As per his sentence, Kitar was once again to accompany me, though he didn't look any happier than I did at the prospect of facing that much cold and dark. Ta-Matoran and cold weather don't mix any better here than they did back home, it seems.

So I set off in the morning once again, this time to Yazoo, with the instructions that I am to seek out Turaga Jiyo immediately after we arrive. I am also to explain that I'm there to help in any way I can, and gain any and all information that might be deemed useful about the situation at hand.

You know, I think I like these Turaga. See, they actually seem to like letting their heroes know what's going on, instead of letting us crash into it after the info's usefulness is gone, like my Turaga do. I could get used to this.

Masa also gave me a special resin to grease my bow and arrows with, to make it so that they don't go too brittle and snap in the cold at Yazoo. Yeah, that'd be a good idea too. Don't want to gain a new weapon just after losing the old one, only for that new one to break so soon...

He also gave me a Ruru, for seeing in the blizzard and the dark. "I know you would probably prefer to just use your own mask," he said, "but the more undercover you are, the better. The Avohkii will give away your position too easily, not to mention its power signature is much higher than a normal Kanohi's. No doubt that was one way the Tunnelers found you in the mines."

He had brought up a good point, one I had never thought of before. If I wanted to treat this as a stealth mission, which was safest, I'd have to limit my use of my Avohkii as much as possible to avoid giving my and Kitar's position away. So not only was this a pain in the rear end, it was also doubling as a learning experience for me. I was going to have to learn to be a regular Toa, not the Chosen One any longer.

Somehow, that thought is both a relief and a slight blow to the ego. I'd always been special (in either a good or a bad way). Even when I became a Toa, which hundreds of Matoran have done before me, I was still the only one of my kind. The prophesied Toa of Light. And here Masa was telling me to go about things like normal people would.

Though, I can't really say that any Toa is exactly normal. As Helryx told me all those years ago, one fo the requirements for the job is being completely insane.

And I MUST be insane if I'm still agreeing to go on this quest. So I guess that means I qualify just fine for the Toa job then!

For now, I'm going to go practice a bit more with my new bow and arrows, then Kitar and I will set sail at dawn again tomorrow. Oh boy, _adventure..._

* * *

**AN: Some more drama with Masa and the mysterious flickering sunlight...hey, that'd make a pretty cool book title...maybe...**

**Hopefully this still has people reading it. I know I haven't really done anything in a long time, and I'm sorry. I'm in math this semester, and math has never been my strong point, so I have to dedicate most of my time to studying. And even still, I'm probably getting a C at best XD Ah well. Any other subject I can get down easily. But give me a math class and I fall flat on my face. Such is life.**

**Also, I'm trying to make this a learning experience for Takanuva. One big problem I had with him in canon was how...inexperienced he always seemed, yet he was always able to pull off a victory somehow. Even Helryx called him out on that (and I love her for it). Though I suppose that's the point of character studies like this, to show new sides and potential for the one in question. But perhaps I'm being unfair, because even after all this time, Takanuva is still my least favorite character in the whole series. Guh. Hopefully this will help me like him a bit more...  
**

**Review, please!**


	11. Chionophobia, Pt 1

**Hm-mm. Back again, after...damn, about five or so months. Sorry.**

**Also, as you might have read on my profile, I am...kinda done with **_**Bionicle**_** in general. My main muse has fled, I'm not into it anymore, all that crap. I still want to finish this and a couple others, but once those are done, I doubt I'll be writing anymore for this series other than perhaps the occasional once-in-a-very-long-while oneshot.**

**Disclaimer: As usual, I am afraid I must admit that I don't own **_**Bionicle**_**. Anyone you don't recognize as canon in this story, however, most likely belongs to me. Everyone else belongs to the LEGO Company.**

**Summary: Takanuva's journey to rescue a friend becomes so much more than a mere rescue when he finds that his quest leads him to a chain of islands known as the Nuian Archipelago, where monsters are said to rule and night is near eternal.**

**Chasing the Sun  
By: Saya Moonshadow**

"_The suspicious mind believes more than it doubts. It believes in a formidable and ineradicable evil lurking in every person."_

* * *

_Day 26_

Yazoo was bloody _cold._

Oh, um, hi, Takanuva, thanks for noticing that, you might be saying now. I mean, it's not as if it's the island of Ice or anything like that...

If only it wasn't. Dear Spirits above, _if only._

As usual, the blanket of shadow surrounding the island in question was more like a cold waterfall, and I drew my cloak about me as our boat went through it. Though, as soon as we were in, I noticed something else: it was snowing.

How the water hadn't turned to ice from the sheer cold was beyond my comprehension, and snow continued to fall from the sky and get absolutely everywhere, as it's famous for doing. Kitar didn't look too happy in his own cloak either, though I can't blame him. He IS a Ta-Matoran, after all, and Ta-Matoran are famous for hating the cold.

Can't say I'm too fond of it either, myself.

A large, dark mass had risen in front of us by now. The island of Yazoo, presumably. Hey, that mountain in the middle looked kind of like a...

"Izzat a castle?" Kitar pointed. I shook my head. "No, that's a mountain. Sure looks like a castle, though, huh?"

Our arrival wasn't exactly action-packed either, which was just fine with me. We had to get off the boat a little ways before the dock, though, since the ice from the actual island had spread about twenty feet past said dock. So instead of just sailing up, we had to get out and haul the boat over the ice so we could tether it properly. I only hoped that when we came back to it, it wouldn't be frozen over as well.

I lifted my head and squinted against the still-falling snow. The island was quiet, enough to be creepy. No wind as far as I could tell. Just ice and snow. "Where's the village?"

Kitar checked the map we had been given. "Says it's over there!" He pointed to the left, and I nodded and started off that way, shouldering my pack and Masa's bow and quiver.

"It's creepy here," he muttered as we walked, the snow crunching under our feet. "There's, like, no sound at all. Kinda weird. I expected there to be a lotta wind or somethin', not total quiet."

I shrugged, but didn't say anything. Partially because I felt the same way, and partially because my teeth were chattering by this point and I didn't want him to know.

Movement was key - movement and exertion would generate body heat, and that was what we needed to keep going. Unfortunately, that meant rest stops would be few and brief from here on out, and it was tiring work trudging through all that snow.

I was sure that had the suns been visible, the view would be spectacular - a seemingly unending expanse of snow and ice, glittering in the light. Surprisingly, there were very few plants about. I had heard a lot the night before about the so-called Frost Roses that practically made up Yazoo's economy, and I have to admit it was disappointing that I had yet to see any.

The village took a while to find, trudging up that hill face, but find it eventually we did. It was oddly reminiscent of Ko-Koro, just as Shinjete resembled Ta-Koro, with crystal huts and snow piled up all over the place. Not that Ko-Matoran minded snow. It was their way of life.

Just as with Iban's village, though, there wasn't a soul in sight.

I stopped in the middle of it, looking around for the Turaga's hut or better yet, any sign of life. "Where is everybody? Don't tell me they were taken too..." I almost groaned, but stopped myself. If they HAD been taken like the Onu-Matoran had, then it wasn't my place to complain. Not like they would ASK to be kidnapped by a bunch of crazy Rahi. If it came down to it, I'd just have to rescue them and hope I fared better against the Ice Bats than I did against the Tunnelers.

"Hello?" I called. "Anybody there?" Nothing. I tried again. "My name is Takanuva. I'm a Toa, and I'm here to help in any way I can!"

THAT got their attention, and as soon as I'd said it, a voice in front of me spoke. "Well, why didn't you say so sooner?"

I whirled, trying to find it. "Who said that?"

Whoever it was laughed. Mata Nui, I am getting SO sick of these disembodied voices that always seem to pop up when I'm around for some reason. It got old forever ago. "I WAS right in front of you, but I suppose now that you've turned around, I am behind you."

I turned around again, squinting, before I finally saw him. The Turaga materialized from seemingly nowhere, smiling and clutching a staff that was shaped oddly like a scepter. To be honest, that staff is really the only reason I noticed him. The bright blue jewel set into its head was what had caught my attention, not the Turaga himself.

Not that I could be blamed, in my defense. He was pure white from head to toe, no darker parts to be found on him. Even his eyes were a pale moonstone. The only bit of actual color on him was the aforementioned blue jewel. He must have made one heck of a Toa back in the day, what with that level of camouflage going on. His enemies wouldn't even know what had hit them.

"I am Turaga Jiyo." he said, smiling broadly. "Let me be the first to welcome you to Yazoo, home of Ice Bats and Frost Roses alike." He was surprisingly cheerful for an Ice Turaga. Most beings of Ko descent that I knew were best described as stoic, and even that was an understatement. This one here seemed to be downright chatty.

I took his outstretched hand and shook it. "Takanuva, Toa of Light. And this here is Kitar, from Shinjete. We're here to help."

"That is good news indeed." Jiyo said, beckoning us over to his hut. I walked on his left side, and saw that his staff wasn't a scepter at all like I'd originally thought - it was an ordinary length of crystal, except that it been wrapped in what looked like vines and thorns made of ice, ending in an elaborate flower at the top. The blue jewel I'd noticed before was set in the middle of the open flower, glittering faintly. "I'm afraid we're rather in need of all the help we can get right now. All the islands are, except Shinjete, or so I hear."

And who knew how long Shinjete would last, if that flicker yesterday was anything to go by.

"Yup." I nodded, stepping into his hut with Kitar when the door opened. "Though it might not last long, the way things are looking."

Jiyo sighed. "That is sad news indeed. Masa had better have a good plan ready for when it happens." He looked at me, and his face brightened in a smile again. "But that has yet to happen and is thus not important just now."

Holy Spirits, if Turaga Nuju were here, he would have died upon hearing that.

"But you say you are here to help? How, may I ask?" He looked at me inquisitively.

His eyes were pale enough to be intimidating. I'd never seen eyes of that color before, and had to look away after a few seconds. "Investigating around, mostly. Maybe knock back the Ice Bats so you all can go and...uh, harvest those Frost Rose things of yours for a bit. Look around and in general try to get to the bottom of things." I shrugged. "You never know, I might even find a way to lift the shadow off your island."

"It has been in place for over two years now." Jiyo said. "I daresay we're almost used to it. But yes, it would be nice to see the suns again on our own island...yes, very nice indeed..." His voice took on a dreamy quality once he mentioned the suns. Just how long had it been since he had last seen them? He talked about them like they were some immeasurably priceless treasure.

Which...I suppose they kind of are, but the longing in his voice was just plain creepy. Nearly everything about him was, to be honest.

Kitar spoke up, seeing as how I speechless for a minute. "So's there anyplace we can start lookin' around?"

I regained my voice quickly. "And what can you tell us about that place? Warnings and the like would be nice; the last one, we kind of had to go in blind..."

Almost literally, as it was too damn dark to see anything in those tunnels.

"Actually, there is." Jiyo seated himself at his desk and leaned his elbows on it, folding his fingers in front of his face. This muffled his voice quite a bit, forcing me to strain to understand most of what he said. "According to several of my people, a 'ghost' has begun to appear around the Frost Rose fields. We cannot go in, of course, but those who have gone to check all claim to have seen a strange blue ghost...thing floating amongst the Frost Roses. I have yet to see it for myself, so I can't say whether it's true or not. Not that I'm calling them all liars, of course, but..."

"But you're not sure if it's a trick or the product of overworked imaginations rather than the real thing." I finished for him.

He nodded. "Yes, exactly. Now, I'm inclined to believe that this has some sort of truth in it, as some have reported that they heard this 'ghost' of theirs singing. The lyrics they have all given me all seem to be parts of the same song, but again, I am not certain."

A singing ghost? Well, I'd certainly had worse. And ghosts are intangible, thus they cannot hurt you. Not that I really believed in ghosts, but you know. If I DID, then that's what I'd think. Intangible, thus not dangerous. Yes.

"What were the lyrics?" I asked. I had every intention of going looking for this ghost myself. Maybe it had something to do with those annoying shadow blanket things. If so, then I would get every last bit of info I could get from it.

Jiyo handed me a sheet of paper, which had several different sets of handwriting on it. "I've had each one write the lyrics as he remembered them." he explained.

The lyrics that the Ko-Matoran had reported went thus:

_Come, chase the sun  
Come, I want you to follow the sun  
Now, it is gone  
And you will never find it again_

Come-  
Run-  
Fly-  
Chase after the sun for me  
Find-  
Gone-  
Chase-  
_You won't find it again_

And when  
The sun is  
Gone and  
You will  
Cry out, scream out  
Chase after it  
And when  
The sun is  
Gone and  
You will  
Cry out, scream out  
And chase after me

Come, chase the sun  
Come and  
Chase it forever for me  
I won't be there  
Sun-  
Lost-  
Run now forever for me

Come-  
Run-  
Fly-_  
Come, though the sun will be gone  
Night-  
Dark-  
Black-  
The sun is forever gone._

I frowned. "Yeah, they all match up pretty good, but what do they mean? 'Chase the sun'? 'The sun is forever gone'? Self-fulfilling prophecy, anyone?"

"That's what I said," Jiyo said with a small laugh. "Though I have no idea what relevance they might have, perhaps you can find our ghost and ask her for me."

I grinned. "Is that an order?"

He grinned right on back. "An order it is."

Kitar looked back and forth between him and me, and then loudly declared that he was the only sane one in the room.

* * *

I have to admit, my little friend had a point. Here I was, going on with some Turaga I'd only just met about ghosts and confusing song lyrics, when I was SUPPOSED to be trudging up the snow-covered mountain and attempting to lay siege to the Ice Bats' main lair. Though I think I can be forgiven for wanting to put that off for as long as possible, for a few good reasons.

One- I'd found a possible clue, or lead, or whatever you might call it, with this so-called "singing ghost" that the Ko-Matoran kept seeing (and hearing).

Two- It was bound to be dark up at the Citadel.

Three- Cold, too.

Four- It was, according to Jiyo, swarming with maddened Ice Bats, one of which was big enough to eat me whole and go back for more.

And five- ...I was exhausted and needed rest.

Those five reasons combined were the perfect explanation as to why I didn't want to set out for the Frost Rose fields immediately, even though Kitar complained like a little kid about it. According to him, certain people could be dying out there while I wasted time like a bum, dawdling and chasing tales of singing ghosts around when I _should_ have been thinking about the problem at hand.

We got into a _slight_ argument about it, and he refused to speak to me for the rest of the night, even though we were both given a place to sleep in Jiyo's hut with him.

I know why he was so angry. He was still thinking about his people and his friend Yuuka and what she was probably going through at the moment. Heck, I was thinking about everyone else too. I was thinking about Nixie and what might have happened to her by now. At least Kitar knew where Yuuka was. I didn't even know if Nixie was even on one of these stupid islands, though I was beginning to suspect that she was.

While Kitar was busy sulking in the opposite corner of the room, I took Turaga Vakama's book of legends out of my bag and began to read.

I don't really know what possessed me to grab this book, but whatever it was, I'm grateful to it. I'd borrowed it before going to meet Nixie the day she was kidnapped on her request. And maybe this is a crazy thought, but maybe she was aware of what's going on in the Archipelago. She's an astronomer, and apparently sees all these crazy signs in the sky, so who knows?

Anyway, I searched for legends about the so-called Rahi Rulers in the book. There was nothing resembling a table of contents, so I had a fair bit of skimming to do before I found anything, but on page 167, I stumbled across a mention of a "queen of darkness and dirt". If that didn't describe the Tunneler Queen to a T...

To my disappointment, it was nothing more than a warning to _"...and beware that queen of darkness and dirt, she who transforms her skin to anything she desires. Neither blade nor bow may break it"_. Thanks for the late warning, book. I really appreciate it.

Reading on, I later came across a tale of a "valiant flying creature of Ice" who challenged a much larger, more dangerous foe to "save a lonely wanderer from being devoured" by the other thing. As these fables often go, the lonely wanderer turned out to be a Great Spirit, who raised the valiant flying creature up and made him ruler of his people because "his heart was unwavering and kind".

Alright. This, it seemed, was the myth of how the Ice Bat King came to be. At first just a lowly, normal Ice Bat, he put his own life on the line to save a stranger, who then gave him a wonderful gift. It made me wonder whether or not it was true, and if a few of the Great Spirits are still out there, wandering around and pretending to be helpless strangers to test beings' character. Doubtful, but hey. It makes for a good story.

In this fable, the Ice Bat supposedly gained the power to "speak as the sentients do" when he was blessed by the Great Spirit he had saved. Now, THAT would definitely be a marvel. The only Rahi I was aware of that could talk were those funky birds that Lewa and Turaga Matau like so much and the Krahka race. It would be interesting to see if it was true, though.

Huh...could the Tunneler Queen understand spoken language too? Maybe all that ugliness could have been avoided if I just talked to her.

...no. Even if I had tried (which honestly had never entered my mind, given the circumstances), I had seen clearly enough that there was hardly enough sanity left in her at that point to merely _exist_, let alone display the power of speech. More likely, it was just another part of the story that wasn't true.

Though, involvement by a Great Spirit DID sort of make sense for as to just why there were apparently seven giant Rahi Ruler-things running around. It was just the sort of thing they'd do.

But seriously, if a giant, rabid freak were chasing you, would you stop and try to talk it out of eating you? No, you'd run like mad! Which is just what I did, because I do not have a death wish. No matter how much it might seem like it sometimes.

Yeah, the one with the death wish? That would be Tahu. I mean, the guy surfs on lava as a _hobby_, for Mata Nui's sake. That's at least as dangerous as what I'm doing here, maybe more so. At least I have more solid stuff under my feet than a pair of swords, and at least I'm not surrounded by magma.

Nope, no magma here. Just snow. Lots and lots of snow. Snow as far as the eye can see. Too much snow.

Disgruntled, I shut the book and put it back in my pack. An utter waste of time, pretty much. I had learned nothing that would help me in any way, even after over two hours of looking through the stupid thing. You'd think enormous Rahi would have a couple prominent legends about them, but no, the prominent giant Rahi legends were about those "first ones", the ancient ones that the Great Beings made and messed up on or something. I already knew about those, and they had nothing to do with the matter at hand.

So I was stuck. Still. Damn it.

Well, as far as I was concerned now, it would probably be a good idea to get some sleep and gear up for tomorrow to go look for that singing ghost (not that anyone can tell what time of day it is around here. How are these people not just completely turned around?) and then to attempt to deal with the Ice Bats. At the very least, I wanted to try and knock them back a bit so that the Matoran could farm a little again and begin to rebuild their economy.

Another good reason to go to sleep? That way, I won't have to deal with Kitar glaring at me every five seconds for "being a bum".

Psh. By default, being a Toa eradicates any bum-ness I might have once had.

* * *

**AN: As you can probably tell, this fic is a little difficult for me to write. I'm not used to telling a story through a journal (as I don't keep one myself), I despise Takanuva (which makes writing him a slight pain in the ass), and I want to keep it fairly mysterious for now. Which is torture unto itself, because I kind of want to just get everything out on the table already and get on with my life. But I have dedicated myself to at least TRYING to deliver a good story. So here we are.**

**Also, as a bit of an extra: the lyrics in this chapter WERE written by me, and if you'd like to hear the song they correspond to, go to YouTube and look up "Annabel Lee" by Nox Arcana. It is currently the number two most-played song on my iTunes playlist, and I _kind of_ love it.  
**

**Anyway...I'd really like it if you would review and, like, tell me what you think and stuff...**


	12. Second Intermission

**Yes, an update already. The majority of this chapter has been written for a while, which is really the only reason it's out so soon after the last one. And OMG, you can SO tell it's easier for me to write in third-person here. The quality of the writing as compared to the journal-chapters is just so much higher xD  
**

**And! A while ago, I was bored enough to make a soundtrack for this fic. A link to it is on my profile. It'll updated as the fic goes on, but yeah, check it out. Who knows, it might even help you get into the story more.**

**Disclaimer: As usual, I am afraid I must admit that I don't own **_**Bionicle**_**. Anyone you don't recognize as canon in this story, however, most likely belongs to me. Everyone else belongs to the LEGO Company.**

**Summary: Takanuva's journey to rescue a friend becomes so much more than a mere rescue when he finds that his quest leads him to a chain of islands known as the Nuian Archipelago, where monsters are said to rule and night is near eternal.**

**Chasing the Sun  
By: Saya Moonshadow**

_Title: Entry No. 702_

_Author: NA_

_Date: NA_

_Time: NA_

_Location: NA_

_I remember that day well. She was a lovely girl, but I did not like her at first. She was too loud, too bright, too...happy for me to even consider liking._

* * *

"_AUGH! Ahh...ahhh...AAAAAUUUUUGGGHHHH!"_

"_Oh, do stop whining. If this is how you scream for the first part of it, I can only imagine what you'll do towards the end."_

* * *

_At that point, I was not happy. I was...content with my life, I suppose. I did my work, and when it was done, I began another project. And I would have continued like this for the rest of my days had it not been for her. She would not leave me alone after that first time that she burst into my work area to deliver a message to me from my client. And every day after that, she came by just to bother me. Or so I told myself._

* * *

"_I'm really amazed you're even still alive, I must say. Look at you. Missing half a leg and torn up all over the rest of your body, and you STILL thought you had the strength to face me? I don't know whether you're brave or just incredibly stupid."_

* * *

_I should have guessed that I would find myself falling for that happiness. Her smile was contagious, her laugh even more so. I found myself missing her when she left for the night, and I could tell by her smile when she came back in the mornings that she felt the same way._

_I will never know that happiness again. Nor can I forget it, not when I spent so long loving it and wanting more of it. And so my plan entered the formulation stages._

* * *

"_Yeah, so, when that thing finishes doing its stuff, you might notice a couple changes going on in your body. Not that you'd ever be the same anyway, what with all those wounds, but this'll REALLY mess you up. Just a warning."_

"_Argh...ahhh..."_

"_What, still fighting it? There's no point. Once that thing gets a hold of ya, it doesn't let go till it's drained everything it can take. And...hm, looks like it's really starting to work now. You better brace yourself."_

"_No...noooo!"_

* * *

_If she cannot be around to be the light and happiness that I once thought this world deserved, then no one must be._

* * *

"_Well, there goes your coloring. Not that anyone could really tell what color you're supposed to be from all the blood on ya, but it's definitely going darker now...a nice, dark gray."_

"_Hgk! St...stop it...!"_

"_Stop what? The experiment? Or the commentary? Sorry, but no can do on both levels. I have to see how these things work. Looks like they're almost perfect, though, I must say. Only a little more tweaking, and they'll be ready to unveil. The process is really coming along nicely. Look, the gray's spread all the way up to your torso now. It'll hit your face soon. Hm, I wonder if it'll do anything to your eyes?"_

"_Nnn...nooo..."_

"_You don't think so? Well, only one way to find out, huh?"_

* * *

_The means to completing the sixth stage are eluding me. Twice now it has failed. Why is this? How could both subjects have failed the test so horribly? Just how hard is it to find a pure heart?_

* * *

"_So, what in Karzahni's name happened to you, anyway? You look like you got into a fight with a chainsaw and lost."_

"_Shut- shut up! AUGH!"_

"_Eh, well, no matter. Those wounds will do you in pretty soon. Saves me the trouble of killing you myself once this is done, too."_

* * *

_I admit I must laugh at that question. The only true pure heart in this world was hers, and now she is gone. Were I to use her for this experiment, I am sure it would work perfectly. Even though I could never bring myself to harm her in any way._

_For now, I will put the search for the last vessel on hold and tend to other matters at hand._

* * *

"_Karzahni...are you really still alive? How is that even possible? You guys are a real nuisance, you know that? You're like roaches; no matter what I do to you, you either send in reinforcements or miraculously survive. Alright, hold still. Gotta get this thing off of you now that it's finished."_

"_AUUUGGGHHH! AUGH! STOP IT!"_

* * *

_No matter how badly these old wounds hurt, I will never give in._

* * *

x.

* * *

As soon as he stepped out of his chamber, a voice assailed him. "Master!"

It was coming from a tiny bug on the wall, and as he watched, it quickly changed into a perfect replica of himself, albeit a grinning one with glowing orange eyes. "Got the word from our girl just now - she's on Yazoo and continuin' with her part of the plan." the copy of him said in a high, clear voice.

The cloaked one nodded thoughtfully. "I see...and has she run into any problems?"

"None that she reported, Master."

"Good...and what of the golden Toa that was spotted?"

The nameless Krahka shrugged. "Dunno. Wish I could say he's at the bottom of some Tunneler's stomach, but the little bastard got away from 'em. Wonder how he swung _that_, you know?"

"That does not matter." His master's voice was sharp, making him gulp. The ever-present grin vanished, replaced with a nervous grimace. "I admit that I am rather disappointed in your recent performance, but it will not hinder our goals too greatly."

"And I'm grateful for that, Master." the Krahka said humbly. More footsteps came thumping down the hall, and his grin returned at full wattage. "Ooh, here he comes! If you'll just wait here a moment, Master, I'll go and..."

Without finishing, he began to stride regally towards the oncoming footsteps and arranged his expression into absolute seriousness, mimicking the one he called "Master" almost perfectly. That Krahka had been a lucky find indeed, the cloaked being knew. Despite the less-than-serious attitude, he had found a good, clever worker in him.

A second later, he heard his own voice echoing down the hall and the two sets of footsteps stopped. "Raidex," the Krahka said in his voice. "I am most displeased with you. The sacrifice you brought me failed abysmally. What do you have to say for yourself?"

"But, sir, it wuddent me that screwed it up so bad!" This new voice was thickly accented and spoke crudely. "That li'l girl o' ours wuz the one that pointed 'im out n' said we hadda take 'im back wid us, 'onest to the Spirits she was! I told 'er we should look fer another one, but she-"

The Krahka's hearty laughter drowned out the babbled excuses, and there was a loud crunch as a fist met the stone wall, having just missed its target by a hair. Within seconds the Krahka was dashing back down the hall towards his master, with a large, almost lumbering being chasing after him.

This larger being stopped once he saw his tormentor hiding behind their master and bowed respectfully, still scowling at the grinning Rahi. "Awh, yer a rude one, ya nameless bastard. 'Ave some more respec' fer Master, why doncha? Ya can't just go 'round wearin' his face like that!"

"It is fine, Raidex," their master said calmly, and the hulking male stiffened up.

"But Master, 'e-"

"I said it is fine, though I would hope that our nameless friend has better things to do with his time than play tricks upon his teammates." Though his voice was almost nonchalant, both of his underlings gulped a bit and the Krahka stepped away from him, assuming the form of a white and gold Toa. The very one that had been spotted a few days prior, in fact.

"I've _been_ workin', Master!" he protested a little fearfully. "I was just about to tell you that I'm gonna go off to check on things on Entiry when this moron showed up and distracted me!" He jerked his thumb at Raidex, who scowled at him viciously.

"Oh no you ain't, ya animal, Entiry's _my_ assignment! What, jus' cuz ya screwed up on Iban, yew think ya gotta take over ever'one else's?"

They both looked at their master, who merely looked bored. "Entiry is part of Raidex's assignment, as he said, Krahka. Iban was yours, and I would advise you not to mess up as badly on Zelo."

"You make yourself crystal clear, Master," the Krahka said, though no such question had been asked. It didn't need to be. When the master said he expected something to be done, you got it done, no questions asked. To do otherwise would be to invite pain.

"Good." The temperature dropped suddenly, and the Krahka swore he almost saw snow begin to fall. "I expect both of you back by mid-morning with a full report on Entiry and Zelo both."

"Yes, sir," they chorused, and Raidex practically ran back down the hall as the Krahka transformed into a small bird and flew towards the nearest window.

Their master smiled slightly. No, no real setbacks had occurred, though it was good to keep the minions on their toes. He didn't know how that white and gold Toa had managed to defeat the Tunneler Queen, but in the long run it didn't matter. The Tunneler Queen had been very ill when she faced him, as well as having a veritable weakness to his power. The Ice Bat King suffered from no such ailments. It was a given that when this interloper faced that beast, he would die.

Though it seemed a pity at times...Ice Bats were really such magnificent creatures. He had always rather liked them.

After a second more of thinking, he began to walk towards his original destination: the library. Yet another day would be spent reading the ancient tomes contained within its shelves and attempting to divine their meaning. It was from there that he had learned so many things that suited his current state, including that forbidden art he had been practicing as of late.

He frowned, thumbing through the book that told of those old rituals for what felt like the millionth time. It had worked perfectly the first five times, so why not now? What was so wrong with his formula all of a sudden that it would just...fail so horribly like this? The red island should be covered in shadow by now like the others. Only then could the plan proceed.

Perhaps it had to do with the element. Yes, Fire had always been somewhat tougher and more difficult to bring down than any of the others he had encountered in his long life, but it still didn't add up.

That coupled with the sacrifices not being perfect, as the others had been...yes, perhaps that was it. Two defining factors, not just the one. He snorted. It would be just like that horrid element to cause such problems for him. A beastly, unrefined element, he'd never liked it...

But now was not the time to be reminiscing. He still had quite a lot of work to do, and it would not get done if he stood around all day moping.

With that thought in mind, the dark one flicked his cloak to the side and opened up a different book. Perhaps he would find the final bit of what he needed to complete the last phase of his plan in this one...

* * *

**AN: New villain-ish character has been introduced! Too bad we won't see him again for a while. He's fun to write, particularly his dialogue. But yeah, at first he was just going to have been killed off after his second failure to bring back a suitable candidate for their project, but I decided to keep him around instead. More on him later.**

**Another useless bit of information that still relates to the fic anyway: chionophobia is the irrational fear of snow, just as claustrophobia is the irrational fear of enclosed spaces. Phobias are fun to study.**

**Review, please... **


End file.
